British nobility

The British nobility is made up of the peerage and the (landed) gentry. The nobility of its four constituent home nations has played a major role in shaping the history of the country, although now they retain only the rights to stand for election to the House of Lords, dining rights there, position in the formal order of precedence, the right to certain titles, and the right to an audience (a private meeting) with the monarch. More than a third of British land is in the hands of aristocrats and traditional landed gentry.

British nobility

The British nobility in the narrow sense consists of members of the immediate families of peers who bear courtesy titles or honorifics. Members of the peerage carry the titles of duke, marquess, earl, viscount or baron. British peers are sometimes referred to generically as lords, although individual dukes are not so styled when addressed or by reference.

A Scottish feudal barony is an official title of nobility in the United Kingdom (but not a peerage), and a feudal baron is addressed as The Baron of X. Scottish lairds' names include a description of their lands in the form of a territorial designation. In Scotland, a territorial designation implies the rank of "Esquire", thus this is not normally added after the name. Lairds are part of Scotland's landed gentry and—where armigerous (that is, entitled to heraldic arms)—minor nobility.

All modern British honours, including peerage dignities, are created directly by the Crown and take effect when letters patent are issued, affixed with the Great Seal of the Realm. The Sovereign is considered to be the fount of honour and, as "the fountain and source of all dignities cannot hold a dignity from himself", cannot hold a British peerage.

Landed gentry

Descendants in the male line of peers and children of women who are peeresses in their own right, as well as baronets, knights, dames and certain other persons who bear no peerage titles, belong to the gentry, deemed members of the non-peerage nobility below whom they rank. The untitled nobility consists of all those who bear formally matriculated, or recorded, armorial bearings. CILANE and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta both consider armorial bearings as the main, if not sole, mark of nobility in Britain.

Other than their designation, such as Gentleman or Esquire, they enjoy only the privilege of a position in the formal orders of precedence in the United Kingdom. The largest portion of the British aristocracy has historically been the landed gentry, made up of baronets and the non-titled armigerous landowners whose families hailed from the medieval feudal class (referred to as gentlemen due to their income solely deriving from land ownership).

Non-hereditary nobility

It is often wrongly assumed that knighthoods and life peerages can not grant hereditary nobility. The bestowal of a peerage or a knighthood is seen as due reason for a grant of arms by Garter King of Arms or Lord Lyon, and thus, those who make use of it attain hereditary nobility. The eldest son of a Knight and his eldest sons in perpetuity attain the rank of Esquire.

The only form of non-hereditary nobility in Great Britain is that associated with certain offices, which give the rank of Gentleman for the duration of tenure, or for life. Some offices and ranks also give the rank of Esquire for life.

Ennoblement

The Monarch grants Peerages, Baronetcies and Knighthoods (nowadays mostly Life Peerages and Knighthoods) to citizens of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Realms at the advice of the Prime Minister. Honours lists are published regularly at important occasions.

Untitled nobility, i.e. gentility, being identical to armigerousness, falls into the jurisdiction of the College of Arms and Lyon Court. Part of the Monarch's fons honorum—the power to grant arms—has been de facto devolved to Garter King of Arms and Lord Lyon King of Arms, respectively. A grant of arms is in every regard equivalent to a patent of nobility on the Continent; depending on jurisdiction and circumstances it can be seen as either an act of ennoblement or a confirmation of nobility.

Thus, along with Belgium and Spain, the United Kingdom remains one of the few countries in which nobility is still granted and the nobility (except for the hereditary peerage and baronetage) does not form a closed, purely "historical" class.

History

Main article: History of the Peerage

Before the 20th century, peerages were generally hereditary and (with a few exceptions) descended in the male line. The eldest son of a duke, marquess or earl almost always uses one of his father's subsidiary titles as a courtesy title; for instance, the eldest son of the Earl of Snowdon is called Viscount Linley.

The modern peerage system is a vestige of the custom of English kings in the 12th and 13th centuries in summoning wealthy men (along with church officials and elected representatives for commoners) to form a Parliament. The economic system at the time was manorialism (or feudalism), and the privilege of being summoned to Parliament was related to the amount of land one controlled (a "barony"). In the late 14th century, this right (or "title") began to be granted by decree, and titles also became inherited with the rest of an estate under the system of primogeniture. Non-hereditary positions began to be created again in 1867 for Law Lords, and in 1958 generally.

In 1958, the Life Peerages Act 1958 enabled (non-hereditary) life peers to sit in the House of Lords, and from then on the creation of hereditary peerages rapidly became obsolete, almost ceasing after 1964. This is only a convention, and was not observed by prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who asked the Queen to create three hereditary peerages (two of them, to men who had no heirs). Until changes in the twentieth century, only a proportion of those holding Scottish and Irish peerages were entitled by that title to sit in the House of Lords; these were nominated by their peers.

Until constitutional reforms soon after Tony Blair came to power (the House of Lords Act 1999), possession of a title in the peerage (except Irish) entitled its holder to a seat in the House of Lords. Since then, only 92 hereditary peers are entitled to sit in the House of Lords, of which 90 are elected by the hereditary peers by ballot and replaced on death. The two exceptions are the Earl Marshal (a position held by the Dukes of Norfolk), who is responsible for certain ceremonial functions on state occasions, and the Lord Great Chamberlain (a position held in gross and one of a number of persons can hold it), who serves as the monarch's representative in Parliament and accompanies them on certain state occasions; both are automatically entitled to sit in the House. Typically, those due to inherit a peerage—or indeed have done so, in recent times—have been educated at one of the major public schools, such as Eton, Radley, Oundle, Winchester or Harrow.

A member of the House of Lords cannot simultaneously be a member of the House of Commons. In 1960, Anthony Wedgwood Benn inherited his father's title as Viscount Stansgate. He fought and won the ensuing by-election, but was disqualified from taking his seat until the Peerage Act 1963 was passed enabling hereditary peers to renounce their titles. Titles, while often considered central to the upper class, are not always strictly so. Both Captain Mark Phillips and Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the respective first and second husbands of Princess Anne, do not hold peerages. Most members of the British upper class are untitled.

Noble titles

Further information: List of nobles and magnates of England in the 13th century

Dukes

• Dukes in the United Kingdom
• List of dukes in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
• List of dukedoms in the peerages of Britain and Ireland

Marquesses

• Marquesses in the United Kingdom
• List of marquesses in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
• List of marquessates in the peerages of Britain and Ireland

Earls

• Royal earldoms in the United Kingdom
• List of earls in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
• List of earldoms

Viscounts

• List of viscounts in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
• List of viscountcies in the peerages of Britain and Ireland

Barons/Lords of Parliament of Scotland

• Royal baronies in the United Kingdom
• List of barons in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
• List of baronies in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
• List of life peerages

Names adopted for titles of honour

The name adopted by the grantee of a title of nobility originally was the name of his seat or principal manor, which often had also been adopted as his surname, for example the Berkeley family seated at Berkeley Castle had the surname "de Berkeley" ("from Berkeley") and gained the title Baron Berkeley, amongst many others. Dukes were originally named after counties, the earliest one being Duke of Cornwall (1337) followed by Duke of Norfolk (1483) and Duke of Somerset (1547). The Duke of Wellington (1814) is an early example of a dukedom being named after a mere village, or manor, after Wellington in Somerset.

Earls, being in reality the "Count" of Continental Europe, were also named after the County over which they exercised control. The range of names adopted for titles gradually expanded from territorial names alone. Later titles used a wide variety of names, including surname (unrelated to territorial designation indicated by the French particule de), for example in 1547 Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich. Edward Russell in 1697 was created Viscount Barfleur after a naval victory in foreign territory, setting a precedent which has been repeatedly followed. Later earldoms also adopted family names, and omitted the preposition "of", an early example being Earl Rivers created in 1466 for Richard Woodville, 1st Baron Rivers. The title was not derived from the name of a place, but from the family name de Redvers, or Reviers, Earls of Devon. Earl Ferrers was created in 1711 for Robert Shirley, 14th Baron Ferrers, whose earlier title was named after the de Ferrers family, or Norman origin. Another early example of a surname being used as a title is Earl Poulett (1706).

Modern life peers do not generally own large estates, from which to name their title, so more imagination is required, unless the simple option of using the surname is selected.

Gentry titles and styles

Baronets (styled as Sir)

• List of baronetcies

Hereditary knights (styled as Sir)

• Knight of Kerry

Knights (styled as Sir)

• Knight, from Old English cniht ("boy" or "servant"), a cognate of the German word Knecht ("labourer" or "servant").
• British honours system

Dames

• Dame

Lords/ Ladies of the Manor (styled John Smith, Lord of X or John Smith ,Lord of the Manor of X)

• Lord of the Manor

Non-peerage nobility

• Barons in Scotland
• Noblesse

Clan chiefs/Lairds

• Clan chief
• Laird

Untitled members of the gentry

• Esquire (ultimately from Latin scutarius, in the sense of shield bearer, via Old French esquier) - comparable to the French-Belgian ecuyer, Dutch jonkheer and German Edler
• Gentleman - the lowest rank and lowest common denominator of British nobility

Irish and Gaelic nobility

See also: Tanistry, Derbfine, and Early Irish law

Outside the United Kingdom, the remaining Gaelic nobility of Ireland continue informally to use their provincial titles, few are recognised as royal extraction by the British Royal Family such as O'Donovan family. As Ireland was nominally under the overlordship of the English Crown for between the 12th and 16th centuries, the Gaelic system coexisted with the British system. A modern survivor of this coexistence is the Baron Inchiquin, still referred to in Ireland as the Prince of Thomond. The Prince of Thomond is one of three remaining claimants to the non-existent, since the 12th century, High Kingship of Ireland, the others being The O'Neill, MacCarthy Mor dynasty and the O'Conor Don.

Chief of the Name was a clan designation which was effectively terminated in 1601 with the collapse of the Gaelic order, and which, through the policy of surrender and regrant, eliminated the role of a chief in a clan or sept structure. This does not mean there is no longer a Chief or a sept today. Contemporary individuals today designated or claiming a title of an Irish chief treat their title as hereditary, whereas chiefs in the Gaelic order were nominated and elected by a vote of their kinsmen. Modern "chiefs" of tribal septs descend from provincial and regional kings with pedigrees beginning in Late Antiquity, whereas Scottish chiefly lines arose well after the formation of the Kingdom of Scotland, (with the exception of the Clann Somhairle, or Clan Donald and Clan MacDougall, the two of royal origins). The related Irish Mór ("Great") is sometimes used by the dominant branches of the larger Irish dynasties to declare their status as the leading princes of the blood, e.g.MacCarthy Mor dynasty, lit. (The) Great Macarthy or Ó Néill Mór, lit. (The) Great O'Neill.

Following the Norman invasion of Ireland several Hiberno-Norman families adopted Gaelic customs, the most prominent being the De Burgh dynasty and FitzGerald dynasty; their use of Gaelic customs did not extend to their titles of nobility, as they continuously utilized titles granted under the authority of the English monarchy.

Jewish nobility

Main article: List of British Jewish nobility and gentry

Gallery

• 
  Lady Margaret Beaufort
• 
  Elizabeth de Clare
• 
  The Lord Bishop William Smyth
• 
  Margaret, Countess of Salisbury
• 
  Walter, 1st Earl of Essex
• 
  Philip, 20th Earl of Arundel
• 
  Sir William Dugdale
• 
  The Lord Bishop Jonathan Trelawny
• 
  Admiral George Churchill
• 
  John, Earl of Mar
• 
  Benedict, 4th Baron Baltimore
• 
  Thomas Forster Esq.
• 
  The Reverend Nicolas Tindal
• 
  James Oglethorpe
• 
  Sir John Acton, 6th Bt
• 
  Elizabeth, Countess of Derby
• 
  The Rt Hon William Windham
• 
  Lord Robert Manners
• 
  Charles, 5th Duke of Richmond
• 
  Rowland Egerton-Warburton
• 
  William, 7th Duke of Devonshire
• 
  Sir William Molesworth, 8th Bt
• 
  The Hon Jane Plumer Erskine
• 
  Robert, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
• 
  John Roddam Spencer Stanhope
• 
  Dudley, 24th Baron de Ros
• 
  Sir Clements Markham
• 
  John, 9th Duke of Argyll
• 
  Winifred, Duchess of Portland
• 
  Simon, 14th Lord Lovat
• 
  Lady Margaret Sackville
• 
  Edward, 17th Earl of Derby
• 
  Sir Thomas Innes of Learney
• 
  David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley
• 
  Henry FitzRoy, 12th Duke of Grafton

See also

• British Royal Family
• Forms of address in the United Kingdom
• Gentry
• Honourable
• List of British monarchs
• Noblesse
• Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom
• Order of precedence in England and Wales
• Peerage, an exposition of great detail
• Peerage of England
• Peerage of Great Britain
• Peerage of Ireland
• Peerage of Scotland
• Peerage of the United Kingdom
• British Public Schools
• Welsh peers and baronets

Further reading

• Cannadine, David. The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (1999)
• Collins, Marcus. "The fall of the English gentleman: the national character in decline, c. 1918–1970." Historical Research 75.187 (2002): 90-111 online.
• Lipp, Charles, and Matthew P. Romaniello, eds. Contested spaces of nobility in early modern Europe (Ashgate, 2013).
• Manning, Brian. "The nobles, the people, and the constitution." Past & Present 9 (1956): 42-64 online during 17th century.
• Stone, Lawrence. “The Anatomy of the Elizabethan Aristocracy.” Economic History Review, 18#1/2, 1948, pp. 1–53. online
  • Trevor-Roper, H. R. “The Elizabethan Aristocracy: An Anatomy Anatomized.” Economic History Review 3#3 1951, pp. 279–298. online
    • Stone, Lawrence. “The Elizabethan Aristocracy-A Restatement.” Economic History Review, 4#3 1952, pp. 302–321. online, a famous controversy

External links

• The Aristocracy, BBC Radio 4 discussion with David Cannadine, Rosemary Sweet & Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (In Our Time, Jun. 19, 2003)