Ep.41: British Peerage & Nobility Titles
Intro
Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.
Today's episode will be on British Peerage and Nobility Titles. Exempted from jury duty and until 1999 entitled to sit in the House of Lords, peerage titles may either be hereditary or granted for life, and exist in various forms in many countries.
Today’s mnemonic will cover both British Peerage and Nobility Titles in order of rank.
With that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Summary
The peerages in the United Kingdom are a legal system comprising both hereditary and lifetime titles, composed of various noble ranks, and forming a constituent part of the British honours system. The term peerage can be used both collectively to refer to the entire body of nobles (or a subdivision thereof), and individually to refer to a specific title (modern English language-style using an initial capital in the latter case but not the former). British peerage title holders are termed peers of the Realm. The peerage's fundamental roles are ones of government, peers being eligible (although formerly entitled) to a seat in the House of Lords, and of meritocracy[dubious – discuss], the receiving of any peerage being the highest of British honours (with the receiving of a more traditional hereditary peerage naturally holding more weight than that of a more modern, and less highly regarded, life peerage[dubious – discuss]). In the UK, five peerages or peerage divisions co-exist, namely:
· The Peerage of England – titles created by the kings and queens of England before the Acts of Union in 1707.
· The Peerage of Scotland – titles created by the kings and queens of Scotland before 1707.
· The Peerage of Great Britain – titles created for the Kingdom of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801.
· The Peerage of Ireland – titles created for the Kingdom of Ireland before the Acts of Union in 1801, and some titles created later.
· The Peerage of the United Kingdom – most titles created since 1801 to the present.
Peerages are created by the British monarch, like all Crown honours, being affirmed by letters patent affixed with the Great Seal of the Realm. His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom makes recommendations to the Sovereign concerning who should be elevated to the peerage, after external vetting by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. Under present custom, the only new hereditary peerages granted are to members of the royal family; the last non-royal awardees of hereditary titles were in the Thatcher era. Since then, ruling parties have refrained from recommending any others to be elevated although there is nothing preventing future governments from doing so.
Labour, elected to power in 1997, sought to remove all of the seats in the House of Lords reserved for hereditary peers, but Prime Minister Tony Blair relented by allowing 92 members to remain by legislation enacted in 1999.[1] The House of Lords' purpose is now that of a revising legislative chamber, scrutinising and potentially changing proposed Parliamentary Bills before their enactment. Its membership for the most part comprises life peers, created under the Life Peerages Act 1958, which includes those who can add value in specific areas of expertise in parliamentary debates, as well as former MPs and other political appointees from respective political parties.
The Sovereign, traditionally the fount of honour, cannot hold a British peerage[2] (although the British Sovereign, whether male or female, is informally accorded the style of 'Duke of Lancaster'). All British subjects who were neither Royal nor Peers of the Realm were previously termed Commoners, regardless of wealth or other social factors; thus all members of a peer's family, with the exception of a wife or unmarried widow, are (technically) commoners too; the British system thus differs fundamentally from continental European versions, where entire families, rather than individuals, were ennobled. Nobility in Britain is based on title rather than bloodline, and correspondingly The Princess Royal (Princess Anne) who enjoys Royal status as daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, opted for her children to be Commoners by refusing offers of titles, despite their being grandchildren of the Sovereign (qv. Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall).
Certain personal privileges are afforded to all peers and peeresses, but the main distinction of a peerage nowadays, apart from access to the House of Lords for life peers and some hereditary peers, is the title and style thereby accorded. Succession claims to existing hereditary peerages are regulated by the House of Lords Committee for Privileges and Conduct and administered by The Crown Office.
Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peerages_in_the_United_Kingdom]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wentworth_Achievement_(Burke%27s_Peerage_1858).png
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Mnemonic
British Peerage & Nobility Titles Mnemonic - Did Mark Ever Vote Before the Bell for KEG
(Picture arms and legs on a keg wearing a crown. He is the King and Mark is the loyal servant who can vote him in as long as he votes before the bell)
1. Duke/Duchess - Peerage
2. Marquess/Marchioness - Peerage
3. Earl/Countess - Peerage
4. Viscount/Viscountess - Peerage
5. Baron/Baroness - Peerage
6. Baronets - Title
7. Knight/Dame - Title
8. Esquire - Title
9. Gentlemen/Lady - Title
Five Fun Facts
1. Nobility used to be the highest class in past societies who received land from the monarch in return for services which were mainly military.
2. The wearing of certain clothes was restricted to the upper class. These set of codes were called “sumptuary laws”.
3. Someone with a noble title of legal importance is known as a peer. Peerages can either be hereditary or only for that person’s life.
4. A Prince is referred to as “your royal highness”.
5. Duke comes from the Latin word dux, which means leader.
6. Bonus Fact: Viscounts were originally administrators and judges who ruled over specific regions of a county.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heraldic_Royal_Crown_(Common).svg
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Three Question Quiz
Q.1. A monarch which is a King or a Queen is addressed as what?
Q.2. What is the lowest rank or peerage?
Q.3. What century did nobility titles start?
Bonus Q. Can a commoner who marries into the royal family obtain a title?
Bonus Q. Why do clouds make good Kings?
Mnemonic Recap
British Peerage & Nobility Titles Mnemonic - Did Mark Ever Vote Before the Bell for KEG
(Picture arms and legs on a keg wearing a crown. He is the King and Mark is the loyal servant who can vote him in as long as he votes before the bell)
1. Duke/Duchess - Peerage
2. Marquess/Marchioness - Peerage
3. Earl/Countess - Peerage
4. Viscount/Viscountess - Peerage
5. Baron/Baroness - Peerage
6. Baronets - Title
7. Knight/Dame - Title
8. Esquire - Title
9. Gentlemen/Lady - Title
Three Question Quiz Answers
Q.1. A monarch which is a King or a Queen is addressed as what?
A. Your Majesty
Now just speaking of kings, once upon a time, there was apparently a king who was only 12 inches tall. Now you would have thought that his lack of height might have made him a little bit more empathetic and a little more considered.
But apparently not, he was a terrible king, but … he made a great ruler!
Q.2. What is the lowest rank or peerage?
A. Baron. Below that for example a knight is a title of honour
Q.3. What century did nobility titles start?
A. 14th Century
Bonus Q. Can a commoner who marries into the royal family obtain a title?
A. Yes, they can obtain a courtesy title but it has no legal importance
Bonus Q. Why do clouds make good Kings?
A. Because they rain/reign over every country in the world!
Word of the Week
limerence
[ li-mer-uhns ]
noun
the state of being obsessively infatuated with someone, usually accompanied by delusions of or a desire for an intense romantic relationship with that person.
Example
Limerence has resulted in abdication in the royal family in the past.
Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]
Website: https://www.themnemonictreepodcast.com/
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References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nobility
https://www.factinate.com/things/42-scandalous-facts-aristocracy/
https://www.infoplease.com/world/social-statistics/whos-who-monarchy
https://www.medievalchronicles.com/medieval-people/medieval-nobility/