Grand Duke

The Grand Duke is one of the people of Auradon and a character in Cinderella. He appeared in the book, Return to the Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel and in the Royal Cotillion scene of Descendants 2. He works for Cinderella and King Charming.

Cinderella
The Grand Duke is first shown with the King, who misses the sound of children running around the castle, and wishes to see grandchildren before he passes away. He tries to figure out how to find his son, Prince Charming, a wife. He comes up with the idea of throwing a ball at his castle and orders the Grand Duke to arrange the ball to celebrate the Prince's return home and to find him a wife.

The Grand Duke finds the King's ideas of love at first sight charming but unrealistic, and when he sees Prince Charming finding himself only bored by the women attending the ball, chastises the King gently, telling the king that his romantic ideas of the Prince suddenly seeing a strange lady and falling in love with her, at first sight, were a story seen only in fairy tales (made especially ironic by the fact that the story of Cinderella is itself a fairy tale). But even as he does so, Prince Charming sees Cinderella and is fascinated by her appearance. The Grand Duke seems taken with Cinderella as well and figures that if the Prince has fallen for this maiden he will do his superior's bidding to make it run smoothly.

The King then orders the Grand Duke to ensure that Cinderella and Prince Charming have a perfect evening, undisturbed and away from any crowds, which he competently arranges by closing the curtains to let the two have a private time together. However, when the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella rushes off and the Grand Duke begs her to stay there. When this fails, he orders guards to try to stop her. He is unsuccessful but is able to collect the glass slipper she has left behind. The Grand Duke is also ready to handle bad news, having to interrupt the King's merriment by telling him the girl with whom Prince Charming has spent the evening has disappeared. As expected, the King becomes enraged, accusing the Grand Duke of conspiring with the Prince to get out of marriage. As the King attempts to kill the Duke out of fury, the Duke dodges whilst explaining that the young woman has left behind the slipper, and the Prince will not rest until she is found, as he is determined to marry none but the one who fits the slipper, finally satiating the King's rage. The Duke then points out sensibly to the King that the slipper may fit any number of ladies' feet, but the King simply points out that is the Prince's problem. He then orders the Duke to find the lady who fits the slipper, to which the Grand Duke says he will have every single woman in the kingdom try it on until a match is found.

The next morning, after a long night of searching, the Grand Duke, accompanied by the Herald, arrives at the home of Lady Tremaine. After trying the slipper on Anastasia and Drizella (who both try their hardest to get it on), he is about to leave, but then Cinderella appears. Ignoring Lady Tremaine's insistence that Cinderella is only a serving girl and could not possibly have been at the ball (though she is sure that she did), the Grand Duke orders Tremaine to step aside so that he can try the slipper on Cinderella, as his orders were every maiden. He calls to the Herald to deliver the slipper, but Lady Tremaine trips the latter, causing the slipper to fly and shatter into pieces in front of the Duke and Cinderella. This makes the Duke feel horrified and terrified about the King's reaction. Cinderella, however, reveals that she has the broken slipper's match, and the Grand Duke is overjoyed to the point that he kisses the slipper with profound relief, both at the replacement and the fact that it is definite proof of the maiden's identity. He slides the slipper onto her foot and finds that it fits. He then takes Cinderella, along with her mice friends, Bruno and Major, to the castle, where Cinderella reunites with Prince Charming, Leaving the Tremaine's shocked and ruined.

Finally, the Grand Duke appears at the film's finale, where he and the King jubilantly throw confetti to celebrate the wedding of Cinderella and Prince Charming, who both walk down the stairs and ride off in a carriage that takes the newlyweds on their honeymoon.

Return to the Isle of the Lost
The Grand Duke appears at home when King Benjamin visits him to ask about the monster attacking Auradon. The Grand Duke redirects him to the village Queen Cinderella came from.

Descendants 2
At the end of Descendants 2, he is seen talking to Fairy Godmother and looking at Jane and Carlos De Vil entering. He is the only one (besides Prince Charming and Cinderella) to wear a Cinderellasburg uniform.

Trivia

 * His role in Cinderellasburg is pretty similar to Lumiere's role in Auradon Central.
 * He is one of Cinderellasburg's leaders.