Clarence Marylebone, Duke of Sandringham

The Duke of Sandringham arrives in Jamie Fraser's world as a plump, powdered aristocrat with exquisite manners and an appetite for gossip, wine, and influence. He hosts lavish dinners, flatters everyone in reach, and drops hints of old debts and old favors owed. Charming, curious, and impossible to read, he seems to know everyone's secrets before they do.

Simon Callow plays him like a man permanently enjoying a private joke, all fluttering hands and delighted little gasps, so that his warmth never quite settles into safety. The writing lets him be genuinely funny and genuinely unsettling in the same breath, and Callow's theatrical relish makes every scene feel like a game whose rules only the Duke knows.