It is described in the patent of nobility granted in 1697 by William III to Arnold Joost van Keppel as "a town and territory in the Dukedom of Normandy.

Aumale was raised by William the Conqueror into a county for his half-sister, Adelaide, and in England translated to an earldom for her husband and their descendants.

[1] See Counts and dukes of Aumale In 1697, King William III created his Dutch favourite Arnold Joost van Keppel Earl of Albemarle in the Peerage of England.

[1] The motive for choosing this title was probably that, apart from its traditions, it avoided the difficulty created by the fact that the Keppels had as yet no territorial possessions in the British Islands.

His eldest son, the third Earl, was also a successful military commander, best known as the commander-in-chief of the invasion and occupation of Havana and west Cuba in 1762.

He was childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, the sixth Earl[2] who lived on his estate at Drumsna in County Leitrim, Ireland, for much of his life.

He had previously joined the Conservative Party and served under Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury as Under-Secretary of State for War.

George Keppel, third son of the seventh Earl, was the husband of Alice Edmondstone, one of the many mistresses of King Edward VII, and the father (although his paternity has been questioned) of the writer and socialite Violet Trefusis and of Mrs. Sonia Cubitt.