Peerage of the United Kingdom
The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain. New peers continued to be created in the Peerage of Ireland until 1898 (the last creation was the Barony of Curzon of Kedleston).
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Peerages in the United Kingdom |
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House of Lords |
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The House of Lords Act 1999 reformed the House of Lords. Until then, all peers of the United Kingdom were automatically members of the House of Lords. However, from that date, most of the hereditary peers ceased to be members, whereas the life peers retained their seats. All hereditary peers of the first creation (i.e. those for whom a peerage was originally created, as opposed to those who inherited a peerage), and all surviving hereditary peers who had served as Leader of the House of Lords, were offered a life peerage to allow them to continue to sit in the House should they wish.
Peers in the Peerage of Scotland and Peerage of Ireland did not have an automatic seat in the House of Lords following the Acts of Union of 1707 and 1800, though the law permitted a limited number to be elected by their fellows to serve in the House of Lords as representative peers. Some peerages of the United Kingdom were created to get around this obstacle and allow certain Scottish and Irish peers to enjoy the automatic right to sit in the House of Lords.[1][2][lower-alpha 1][4][5][lower-alpha 2]
Key
Ranks
The ranks of the peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron.[7]
The last non-royal dukedom was created in 1874, and the last marquessate was created in 1936. Creation of the remaining ranks, except baronies for life, mostly ceased once Harold Wilson's Labour government took office in 1964, and only fourteen (nine non-royal and five royal) people have been created hereditary peers since then. These were:
Dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- Subsidiary title.
Marquesses in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- Subsidiary title.
Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- Subsidiary title.
Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- Subsidiary title.
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- Subsidiary title.
Extinct peerages since the Passage of the House of Lords Act 1999
Extinct dukedoms
Shield | Title | Creation | Extinct | Grantee | Reason | Monarch | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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20 November 1947 | 8 September 2022 (Merged with the Crown) |
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On his wedding day to Princess Elizabeth. | King George VI |
Extinct earldoms
Shield | Title | Creation | Extinct | Grantee | Reason | Monarch | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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4 June 1831 | 30 December 2000 | George FitzClarence, Esq. | [note 1] | King William IV | ||
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30 June 1838 | 31 January 2018 | ![]() |
— | Queen Victoria | ||
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19 January 1898 | 31 December 2010 | ![]() |
Incumbent Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. | |||
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27 July 1914 | 16 December 2011 | ![]() |
Military Peerage–Army.[note 1] | King George V |
Extinct viscountcies
Shield | Title | Creation | Extinct | Grantee | Reason | Monarch | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Viscount Gough | 15 June 1849 | 14 April 2023 | ![]() |
Military Peerage–Army. | Queen Victoria | |
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Viscount Cross | 19 August 1886 | 5 December 2004 | The Rt Hon. Sir R. A. Cross, MP | Former Home Secretary. | ||
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Viscount Churchill | 14 July 1902 | 18 October 2017 | ![]() |
— | King Edward VII | |
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Viscount Leverhulme | 27 November 1922 | 4 July 2000 | ![]() |
— | King George V | |
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Viscount Greenwood | 16 February 1937 | 7 July 2003 | ![]() |
Former cabinet minister. | King George VI | |
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Viscount Simon | 20 May 1940 | 15 August 2021 | The Rt Hon. Sir John Simon, MP | Incumbent Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. | ||
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Viscount Alanbrooke | 29 January 1946 | 10 January 2018 | ![]() |
Military Peerage–Army. | ||
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Viscount Ingleby | 17 January 1956 | 14 August 2008 | The Rt Hon. Osbert Peake, MP | Former cabinet minister. | Queen Elizabeth II |
Extinct baronies
Current titles without heirs
Current UK Peers
Current Scottish and Irish peers with British titles
Title | Imperial Title | Monarch | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Earl | |||
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Baron Sudley | Queen Victoria | Heirs to the Earldom of Arran (Ireland, 1762) |
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Viscount Clancarty | King George IV | |
Baron Trench | The Prince Regent | ||
Viscount | |||
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Baron Powerscourt | Queen Victoria | Heirs to the Viscountcy of Powerscourt (Ireland, 1744) |
Baron | |||
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Baron Rossmore | Queen Victoria | — |
Peerages in remainder to other Peerages
- Subsidiary title.
Titles
Marquesses, earls, viscounts and barons are all addressed as 'Lord X', where 'X' represents either their territory or surname pertaining to their title. Marchionesses, countesses, viscountesses and baronesses are all addressed as 'Lady X'. Dukes and duchesses are addressed just as 'Duke' or 'Duchess' or, in a non-social context, 'Your Grace'.
Lists of peers
- 30 Dukes: see List of dukes in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
- 34 Marquesses: see List of marquesses in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
- 189 Earls and countesses: see List of earls in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
- 110 Viscounts: see List of viscounts in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
- 443 Hereditary Barons: see List of barons in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
- Women: see List of peerages created for women and List of peerages inherited by women
See also
Notes
- The Peerage Act 1963 gave Scottish Peers an automatic right to sit in the Lords.[3]
- Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922, Irish peers ceased to elect representatives, although those already elected continued to have the right to serve for life; the last of the temporal peers, Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey, by chance a peer from an Ulster family, died in 1961.[6]
- Originally created for Alexander Duff, Earl of Fife on his wedding day to Princess Louise of Wales on 29 July 1889.[note 1]
- Current Peerage with Special Remainder according to the link
- Scottish Representative Peer
- 3rd son of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire.
- 2nd son of George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland.
- 3rd son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford.
- 4th son of Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington.
- 2nd son of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford.
- 2nd son of Henry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre.
- 2nd son of Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer.
- Grandson of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale.
- Grandson of George Bridgeman, 2nd Earl of Bradford.
- Eldest son of Walter Runciman, 1st Baron Runciman.
- 3rd son of James Alexander, 4th Earl of Caledon.
- 2nd son of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven.
- Grandson of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton.
- 2nd son of David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor.
- 3rd son of Morton Gray Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray.
- 3rd son of Richard Hare, 4th Earl of Listowel.
- 3rd son of Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan.
- Grandson of John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland.
- Eldest son of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun.
- 2nd son of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun.
- 3rd son of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry.
- 3rd son of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough.
- Grandson of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute.
- 7th son of Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington.
- The Barony of Kilmarnock remained a subsidiary title of the Earldom of Erroll until the death in 1941 of the eighteenth Earl's great-great-grandson, the twenty-second Earl. The earldom, which could be passed on through female lines, was inherited by the late Earl's daughter and only child, the twenty-third Countess. The barony of Kilmarnock, which could only be passed on to male heirs, was inherited by the Earl's younger brother, the sixth Baron. He assumed the surname of Boyd in lieu of Hay the same year he succeeded to the title.[9][10]
- 8th son of Charles Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan.
- Grandson of Arthur Chichester, 1st Marquess of Donegall.
- Eldest son of Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby.
- Eldest son of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough.
- Great-Grandson of George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington.
- 3rd son of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough.
- Eldest son of Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford.
- Eldest son of John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley.
- 3rd son of Henry Conyngham, 1st Marquess Conyngham.
- 9th son of Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort.
- 3rd son of Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster.
- 4th son of George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington.
- 4th son of George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke.
- Grandson of James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton.
- A descendant of Edward Chichester, 1st Viscount Chichester.
- 2nd son of Henry Howard, 13th Duke of Norfolk.
- Eldest son of Augustus FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster.
- 4th son of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr.
- 3rd son of Arthur Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire.
- Grandson of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford.
- The Barony was a subsidiary title of the earldom until the death of the ninth Earl's grandson, the eleventh Earl, in 1915. The earldom, which could be passed on to female heirs, was inherited by the Earl's daughter and only child, the twelfth Countess. The barony of Strathspey, which could only be inherited by males, were passed on to the Earl's brother, the fourth Baron.[11]
- 2nd son of Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch.
- 2nd son of Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby.
- Eldest son of Ivor Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne.
- 2nd son of Charles Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge.
- 2nd son of Thomas Cochrane, 11th Earl of Dundonald.
- 4th son of Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax.
- Great-Grandson of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough.
- A descendant of Henry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel, in remainder of the Duke of Norfolk.
- 3rd son of Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh.
- Great-Grandson of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun.
- Grandson of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury.
- 2nd son of Walter Hore-Ruthven, 9th Lord Ruthven of Freeland.
- Great-Grandson of William Kerr, 6th Marquess of Lothian.
- 2nd son of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford.
- 3rd son of Alfred Lawrence, 1st Baron Trevethin.
- 3rd son of Edward O'Neill, 2nd Baron O'Neill.
- 3rd son of Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer.
- Eldest son of Edward Scawen Wyndham, 5th Baron Leconfield.
- A descendant of Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard.
- 2nd son of Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow.
- Grandson of James Grimston, 2nd Earl of Verulam.
- Created Baron Halsbury on 26 June 1885.
- Created Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum on 11 July 1902.
- Created Baron Gough on 7 April 1846.
- Created Baron Leverhulme on 21 June 1917.
- Created Baron Greenwood on 31 August 1929.
- Created Baron Alanbrooke on 18 September 1945.
- Great-Grandson of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough.
References
Citations
- May, Thomas Erskine (1851). A practical treatise on the law, privileges, proceedings and usage of Parliament. Butterworths. pp. 6–8, 15. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
- Price, Jacob M (December 1961). "The Sixteen Peers of Scotland: An Account of the Elections of the Representative Peers of Scotland, 1707–1959 by James Fergusson". The Journal of Modern History. 33 (4): 439. doi:10.1086/238935.
- "Peerage Act 1963". www.parliament.uk.
- Malcomson 2000 p.312; "(40 Geo. 4 c.39 [Ir.]) An Act to regulate the Mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons to Serve in the United Kingdom on the Part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parliament". The statutes at large, passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland. Vol. 20. Dublin: Boulter Grierson. 12 June 1800. pp. 349–358.
- May, Erskine (1862). The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III 1760–1860. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. p. 228.
- Gadd, R.P. "A short account of the peerage of Ireland". The Heraldry Society. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
- "The Dukes of the Peerage of the United Kingdom". Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
- "New title for the Earl of Wessex". The Royal Family. 10 March 2019.
- "Gilbert Alan (6th Baron Kilmarnock) Boyd (Previously Hay) b. 15 Jan 1903 d. 15 Mar 1975: The Douglas Archives". www.douglashistory.co.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- "Gilbert Allan Rowland Boyd, 6th Baron Kilmarnock - Person - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- "Death of Lord Seafield". The Evening Post. Vol. XCI, no. 5. 7 January 1916. p. 3. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
Sources
- The Roll of the Peerage, The Crown Office, Ministry of Justice