Armoured cruisers as Dreadnought's design ancestors

Armoured cruisers were built for scouting, trade protection, and the pursuit or evasion of commerce raiders, so high speed and range were central to their purpose. Those requirements made them a more natural design laboratory for fast, long-ranged fighting than close-range pre-dreadnought battleships. The Duke of Edinburgh class resembles Dreadnought in its hull lines, bridge, and wing-turret layout. Dreadnought therefore gathered established developments into a new combination rather than appearing without design ancestors.