Peerage Hierarchy Chart
The British peerage has five degrees, a set of forms of address that trip up almost everybody, and a great many things that look like titles but are not. Here is the whole of it on one page.
The five degrees of the peerage
In order of precedence, highest first. Open any rank for how it is addressed, where it came from, and who holds it. The two ranks in stone at the bottom are the ones most often mistaken for peerages — they are not.
The highest degree of the peerage and by far the rarest. Edward III made the first English duke in 1337, granting the dukedom of Cornwall to his eldest son — a title the heir to the throne still holds today.
A duke is never called Lord. Get this one wrong in the room and everybody notices, which is exactly why it is the first line of this page.
- Duke of Wellington
- Duke of Norfolk
- Duke of Devonshire
Originally a lord of the marches — the contested borderlands with Wales and Scotland, where holding the ground was the whole of the job, and the rank was the pay.
Spelled marquis in the French style, but not in the British peerage. Robert de Vere was made Marquess of Dublin in 1385, and the rank sat awkwardly between duke and earl for a century before anyone took to it.
- Marquess of Salisbury
- Marquess of Bath
- Marquess of Lansdowne
The oldest rank in the English peerage, from the Old English eorl, and the only one of the five whose name did not arrive with the Normans.
There is no English word "earless": the wife of an earl is a countess, which is the Norman half of the join showing through. The rank kept its English name and borrowed a French one for the other half.
- Earl Spencer
- Earl of Derby
- Earl Grey
Literally a vice-count: a deputy to an earl. The last of the five to be introduced to the English peerage, when John Beaumont was made a viscount in 1440.
It is the rank most often given to distinguished commanders and public servants in the twentieth century, which is why the list of viscounts reads like a history of the period.
- Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
- Viscount Slim
- Viscount Rothermere
The base of the peerage and much the most numerous rank, because every life peer created since the Life Peerages Act 1958 has been a baron or a baroness. If you have heard of a peer, the odds are this is what they are.
Baronies were summoned by writ from the thirteenth century and granted by letters patent from 1387. In the Scottish peerage the equivalent degree is Lord of Parliament, not baron — for reasons the next section explains, and they matter here more than anywhere.
- Baroness Hale of Richmond
- Baron Sugar
- Baroness Warsi
Hereditary, addressed as Sir, and constantly mistaken for the bottom rung of the peerage. It is not one. James VI and I invented the rank in 1611 largely to raise money, and baronets have never sat in the House of Lords.
Not hereditary, not a peerage, and gone when the holder is. It shares the style Sir with a baronetcy, which is the source of most of the remaining confusion on this page.
Every rank below duke is addressed as Lord or Lady in ordinary speech. That single fact is the source of almost all the confusion this page exists to clear up — and of a good deal of the marketing that trades on it.
The ranks compared
The same facts side by side, for anyone who would rather scan a table than open five drawers.
| Rank | Addressed as | Formal style | Hereditary | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke / Duchess | Your Grace | The Most Noble | Yes | Peerage |
| Marquess / Marchioness | Lord / Lady | The Most Honourable | Yes | Peerage |
| Earl / Countess | Lord / Lady | The Right Honourable | Yes | Peerage |
| Viscount / Viscountess | Lord / Lady | The Right Honourable | Yes | Peerage |
| Baron / Baroness | Lord / Lady | The Right Honourable | Yes | Peerage |
| Lord of Parliament | Lord / Lady | The Right Honourable | Yes | Peerage (Scotland) |
| Baronet / Baronetess | Sir / Dame (wife: Lady) | Sir Firstname, Bt | Yes | Not a peerage |
| Knight / Dame | Sir / Dame | Sir Firstname | No | Not a peerage |
| Feudal baron (Scotland) | Baron of [place] | None | Transferable | Not a peerage |
| A purchased honorific | Whatever you like | None | No | Not a title at all |
Scotland is different
The Scottish peerage ends in Lord of Parliament rather than baron. That is because “baron” already meant something else north of the border: a feudal barony, a holding of land with certain rights attached, which was a form of property rather than a rank of nobility.
The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 severed those baronies from the land itself. The dignity survives as incorporeal heritable property and can still change hands, and the Court of the Lord Lyon will recognise the style Baron of [place] — but it is not a peerage, carries no seat in the Lords, and is not what anybody means by “buying a title” in an advertisement.
This distinction is the one the souvenir-plot trade leans on hardest. A real feudal barony is a genuine, expensive, transferable dignity with a paper trail. A square metre of hillside is not one, however the listing is worded.
Things that are not peerages
- Baronet — hereditary, addressed as Sir, and often mistaken for the bottom of the peerage. It is not one: baronets have never sat in the House of Lords.
- Knight — not hereditary and not a peerage. Also Sir, which is why the two get confused.
- Courtesy titles — the eldest son of a duke, marquess or earl uses one of his father’s lesser titles while his father is alive. He is not a peer; he only sounds like one. The term has a precise meaning, and it does not stretch to cover anything bought.
- Laird — a Scots word for a landowner, and a description rather than a title. It confers nothing and cannot be bought as a rank.
- Souvenir plots — a square metre of Scottish land, sold for novelty. Under the Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012 souvenir plots cannot be registered at all, and the Court of the Lord Lyon has stated plainly that owning one gives no right to style yourself Laird, Lord or Lady.
Hereditary and life peers
Until 1999 a hereditary peerage came with a seat in the House of Lords. The House of Lords Act 1999 ended that, leaving 92 hereditary peers sitting by election among themselves; the rest of the House is made up of life peers created under the Life Peerages Act 1958, plus the bishops.
A life peerage stops with the holder. A hereditary peerage passes on — but since 1999 it passes on considerably less than it used to.
How a peerage is actually created
By the Crown, and only by the Crown. A peerage is granted by letters patent under the Great Seal, on the advice of the Prime Minister, and the grant is published in The London Gazette where anybody can go and read it. There is no fee, no application form and no shop.
That is worth stating plainly, because the entire business of selling titles depends on people not knowing it. If a peerage could be bought, the price would not be £55.
Where a Lord Title certificate sits
If we had to point at the rung it echoes, it is Baron.
The reason is the form of address. A baron is almost never called “Baron” in ordinary speech; he is called Lord. That is true of a viscount, an earl and a marquess too, but baron is the base of the peerage and much the most numerous of the five degrees, so when somebody says “Lord” and has a real peer in mind, a baron is usually who they mean. It is the rung a purchased honorific echoes — which is exactly why “Lord” sounds right at a dinner table rather than faintly odd.
The resemblance is one of style, not of standing. A barony is created by the Crown, carries precedence in law, and until 1999 came with a seat in the House of Lords; in Scotland the equivalent degree is Lord of Parliament. A Lord Title certificate is proclaimed by the House of Pierpont-Archer. It carries no precedence, changes nothing on any public register, and comes with a wax seal and a square metre of Scottish woodland instead of a committee. The address is the same; the machinery behind it is not, and we would rather tell you that plainly than let the resemblance do the talking.
Because it bears repeating: nobody can sell you a place on the list above. Peerages are made by the Crown, have never been for sale at any price, and the people who imply otherwise are the reason this page exists. What we issue is an honorific — a name set in gold, a reference in the House register, and a wood in the Cheviot Hills at Upper Hindhope dedicated alongside it.
Curious how the certificate itself works? See how it works, or read about our crest and House.