Peerage

The Peerage is a system of titles of nobility which exists in the United Kingdom and is one part of the British honours system. The term can be used to refer to the entire body of titles in a collective sense, or to a specific title.

Hereditary peers

Main article: Hereditary peer

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An hereditary peer is a peer whose dignity may be inherited. Hereditary peerage dignities may be created by the Sovereign with writs of summons or by letters patent, the former method now being obsolete. Writs of summons summon an individual to Parliament, in the old feudal tradition, and merely imply the existence or creation of an hereditary peerage dignity, which is automatically inherited, presumably according to the traditional mediæval rules (male-preference primogeniture, similar to the succession of British crown). Letters patent, however, explicitly create a dignity and specify its course of inheritance (usually agnatic succession, like the Salic Law).

Related Topics:
Letters patent - Feudal - Primogeniture - Agnatic - Salic Law

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Once created, a peerage dignity continues to exist as long as there are surviving descendants of the first holder. Once the heirs of the original peer die out, the peerage dignity is said to have become extinct. In former times, peerage dignities were often forfeit by Acts of Parliament, usually when peers were found guilty of treason. Often, however, the felonious peer's descendants successfully petitioned the Sovereign to restore the dignity to the family. Some dignities, such as the Dukedom of Norfolk, have been forfeit and restored several times. It is now also possible for an individual to disclaim his own peerage dignity within one year of inheriting it under the Peerage Act 1963. The Sovereign is incapable of holding a peerage dignity; when the holder of a peerage succeeds to the Crown, the dignity merges in the Crown and ceases to exist.

Related Topics:
Treason - Dukedom of Norfolk - Peerage Act 1963

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Hereditary peers were all once entitled to sit in the House of Lords, subject only to qualifications such as age and citizenship. (Scottish and Irish peers, as noted above, were not automatically entitled to seats.) Under the House of Lords Act 1999, however, hereditary peers lost their automatic right to sit in the Upper House. The Act did provide that ninety-two hereditary peers—those exercising the offices of Lord Great Chamberlain and Earl Marshal, as well as ninety hereditary peers elected by other peers—could remain in the House of Lords in the interim.

Related Topics:
House of Lords Act 1999 - Lord Great Chamberlain - Earl Marshal

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