The peerage is Britain’s system of aristocratic rank. There are five degrees, and in descending order they are duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron.
The ranks
- Duke — the highest, from the Latin dux, a leader. Addressed as Your Grace. There are around 30, of whom a handful are royal dukes. The title has been granted very sparingly.
- Marquess — pronounced MAR-kwiss. Originally a lord of the border marches.
- Earl — the oldest English title, from the Old English eorl, and the only rank with no female equivalent term of its own: an earl’s wife is a countess.
- Viscount — pronounced VY-count, with a silent s.
- Baron — the most numerous, and the rank of every life peer.
Below the peerage sit baronets — hereditary knights, styled “Sir”, but not peers — and then knights, who hold the title for life only.
Hereditary and life peers
The crucial modern distinction:
- Hereditary peerages pass down, usually to the eldest son. Around 800 exist, and new ones are effectively never created — the last non-royal grants were in 1984.
- Life peerages, created under the Life Peerages Act 1958, are held for life only and are not inherited. All are baronies, and this is how the House of Lords is now filled.
The 1999 reform
Until 1999, every hereditary peer had the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords — several hundred people legislating because of who their ancestors were.
The House of Lords Act 1999 removed almost all of them. As part of the compromise that got the bill through, 92 were allowed to remain temporarily, pending a fuller reform that has still not happened.
When one of the 92 dies, a hereditary peers’ by-election is held to replace him — and only other hereditary peers may stand and vote. The electorate for some of these is in single figures, and the arrangement is regularly described as the most absurd election in the democratic world. Legislation to abolish the remaining 92 is currently before Parliament.
Titles are not surnames
The point outsiders most often get wrong. A peer’s title is usually a place, not a family name — the Duke of Devonshire’s surname is Cavendish, and the Duke of Norfolk’s is Howard. Neither has any authority over the county named.
Nor do titles confer land, and a great many peers own nothing in the place they are named after.
Courtesy titles
The eldest son of a senior peer uses one of his father’s lesser titles by courtesy while the father lives. So the Duke of Devonshire’s heir is styled Marquess of Hartington — a real-sounding title held by someone who is, legally, a commoner.
This is why British aristocrats in novels change names between chapters, and why the system is impenetrable without a reference book. Debrett’s and Burke’s Peerage exist for exactly this reason.
What it means now
Legally, very little. Peers have no special legal privileges beyond those 92 seats, no exemption from any law, and no automatic wealth. Socially it still carries weight, and the great landed estates — many still in the same families after four hundred years — remain among the largest private landholdings in Britain.