Peerage of Scotland

The Peerage of Scotland is the division of the British Peerage for those peers created in the Kingdom of Scotland before 1707. With that year's Act of Union, the Kingdoms of Scotland and England were combined into the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a new Peerage of Great Britain was introduced in which subsequent titles would be granted. After the Union, the old Scottish Peers elected sixteen representative peers to sit in the House of Lords. The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish Peers to sit in the House of Lords, a right which was lost along with all other hereditary peers due to the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999. Unlike most other peerage titles, many Scottish titles can pass through female lines, and in the case of daughters only, these pass to the eldest daughter rather than go into abeyance.

Related Topics:
British - Peerage - Kingdom of Scotland - 1707 - Act of Union - Peerage of Great Britain - Representative peer - House of Lords - Peerage Act 1963 - House of Lords Act 1999 - Abeyance

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The ranks of the Scottish Peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Lord of Parliament. Scottish Viscounts are unique from the other Peerages in using "of" in their title, as in Viscount of Oxfuird. Though this is the theoretical form, most Viscounts drop the "of". The Viscount of Arbuthnott and, to a lesser extent, the Viscount of Oxfuird, still actively use "of". Scottish Peers had the right to sit in the Scottish Parliament. Scottish Barons are not peers, but merely holders of feudal baronies, which can be bought and sold.

Related Topics:
Duke - Marquess - Earl - Viscount - Lord of Parliament - Scottish Parliament - Baron

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In the following table of extant Scottish peers, all higher or equal titles in the other peerages are listed. Also, if a Scottish peer holds a lower title in the Peerages of England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, and therefore sat (or, in the cases of Life peerages, sit) by virtue of such a peerage in the House of Lords, such a lower title is listed. However, a holder of multiple Scottish peerages is only listed under the highest one.

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