The Duke

The Duke (also known as Lord Duke or just Duke) is a supporting character in the Sleeping Beauty segment of Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams. He is King Stefan's fussy, but well behaved, majordomo.
==Background==
As majordomo of the castle's household staff, Lord Duke is in charge of all the household servants, while upholding Stefan's laws and assisting him in his arrangements of the kingdom, regardless of how difficult these laws are. As second in command of the royal court, he is also Stefan's most closest confidant and advisor.
===Personality===
Lord Duke is shown to be dignified and very obedient to King Stefan and Queen Leah. He takes his position as majordomo very seriously and manages to ensure that everything in the household of the kingdom is running accordingly to his master's rules, as well as valuing his own intelligence and as such, Duke sought to ensure that everything in the castle is to Stefan's liking, so the amount of tension caused by Stefan's anger or temper (and the consequences that come with it) could be reduced. At times, Duke is also shown to be worried and is prone to panic when things go wrong, such as doubting Princess Aurora that she cannot read the forms as he objects that it will take months and seeing green pigs, giant chickens, and cows that was caused by Aurora's inexperience of magic when she used Merryweather's wand to solve the problems easily. This further demonstrates that he is too scared to realize how furious his master would be if he would have find out about the incident, had it not been for Aurora's cleverness. Duke is also accident-prone when he falls from the table that causes some papers to fall after sneezing, crashing down with a bookcase while getting the paper on top, and tumbling down the moat while trying to retrieve King Hubert's speech. Despite all this and while his allegiance is still driven his own fear of angering or upsetting Stefan, Duke is still loyal to his master and mistress and is a helpful servant when he assists Aurora in temporarily ruling the kingdom, while Stefan, Leah, Hubert, and Prince Phillip go out of town for the royal conference. He is also shown to be a friendly adviser when he advised Aurora to stick with the problems by showing perseverance while dealing with the redheaded farmer who wanted chickens.
===Physical appearance===
Duke is a slender middle aged man with a long pointy nose, black eyes, and is half bald with medium length black hair. He wears a puffy striped white and teal shirt that matches his striped tunkhose and long stockings, brown shoes, and a pink sash over his shoulders to the waist.
==Role in the film==
Lord Duke officially appears in the first segment of Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams. After King Stefan and Queen Leah told Aurora about ruling the kingdom while they attend the Royal Conference for King Hubert's speech in his kingdom, Stefan asked Duke about the arrangements for the Royal Conference. Duke assured that everything in the kingdom will run like clockwork and he bows down. But while doing so, he accidentally rips his tunkhose, revealing his pink-hearted boxers and runs to change his breeches, sheepishly embarrassed of what Stefan would react to his indigent self. However, Stefan and Leah laugh of what they saw at Duke.
Duke is seen again when he informed Aurora about the signatures she needed to sign. She told him that her father said that the papers needed to be sign and that she was busy with the banquet. As she told him to hand her the first paper to read, he initially objected, claiming that it will take months and that reading won't be important because he told her to sign the forms. At first, he objected that they'll never get through all of the signature forms, but Aurora advised him that they needed to show perseverance. Hearing of what Aurora said, he goes on the table and gets the first signed paper on top of the tower of papers, causing Aurora to catch it. But he sneezes and accidentally falls off the table, causing some papers to fall off, but organizes them back together. However, he sees the paper on top of the book shelf and grabs it, but the book shelf fell with him on the floor. Recovering from the fall and after giving Aurora the document, he sees the paper on the edge of the castle window. He attempts to catch it, but he accidentally fell into the moat of the castle, screaming. Dripping wet, he gave Aurora the document, which was actually the speech King Hubert forgot for the Royal Conference. Aurora needed someone to take the speech to Hubert in his castle, despite Duke complaining that they had only started the duty. Luckily, Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna arrive to do the task in delivering the document to Hubert for his speech at the Royal Conference. Before Merryweather gave Aurora the wand for extra help, Duke reminded Aurora that they have a lot of work to do for the kingdom.
That evening, when Aurora is reviewing the signatures, Duke is seen sleeping. The next morning, he told Aurora that she will meet with the peasants and assisted her in dealing with each peasant with their problems. Later that day, he advised Aurora that they should take a break, hoping that Stefan would understand. But Aurora determined not to give up, stating that her father told her about perseverance. However, when dealing with the redheaded farmer who wanted more chickens, she hesitated at the problem, but Duke advised her about perseverance and goes to find the forms he forgot.
While he goes to find the forms, Aurora's magical inexperience leads to several consequences such as green pigs, enormous chickens, and cows. When Duke returned, he noticed the magic incident and a cow head-butts him out of the castle walls. When Stefan, Leah, Hubert, Phillip, and Samson return home from the Royal Conference at Hubert's kingdom, Duke falls from a cow and runs to the carriage to warn them about the green pigs, giant chickens, and cows. Not understanding of what he said, a frustrated Stefan asks Duke if he's going crazy. But the worrisome majordomo told his master to see this incident at the throne room. When Duke, Stefan, Leah, Hubert, and Phillip arrive at the throne room, there were no giant chickens, green pigs, and cows, due to the problem being solved by Aurora. As Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather return from Hubert's kingdom and when Aurora gave Merryweather her wand back, a confused Stefan asked Duke if he saw any cows and green pigs, but he told his master that they're all gone and he can't take the stress anymore.
Lord Duke is seen at the end of the first segment, where he is sitting next to Queen Leah at the royal banquet, alongside the two kings, the Three Good Fairies, Phillip, and Aurora, who told them about ruling a kingdom being both exciting and a challenge and that it is better to have them back. As they applauded at Aurora's brief speech, Stefan and Hubert talks about "rumors" about giant chickens and cows as Phillip mentions green pigs, causing Stefan, Hubert, Duke, Leah, and the Three Good Fairies to laugh, along with Aurora.
==Trivia==
*He is referred as "Duke" onscreen, but is credited as "The Duke" in the credits.
*His position of majordomo is similar to that of the Grand Duke from Cinderella and Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast.
**Coincidentally, the three head servants reside in France, make sure the servants in each household perform as accordingly, and are extremely loyal to their respective bosses, even though their loyalties are driven by their fear of angering them.
==External links==
*Lord Duke on Heroes Wiki
Category:Disney characters
Category:Characters
Category:Sleeping Beauty characters
Category:Males
Category:Adults
Category:Animated characters
Category:Characters in the Disney animated features canon
Category:Servants
Category:European characters