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The British nobility is made up of the peerage and the gentry of the British Isles. Though the UK is today a constitutional monarchy with strong democratic elements, historically the British Isles were more predisposed towards aristocratic governance in which power was largely inherited and shared amongst a noble class.
The ranks of the English peerage are, in descending order, duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. While most newer English peerages descend only in the male line, many of the older ones (particularly older baronies) can descend through females.
For individual members with equivalent ranks but of different orders, precedence is accorded based on the seniority of the British orders of chivalry: the Order of the Bath, the Order of St Michael and St George, the Royal Victorian Order, and the Order of the British Empire. For equivalent ranks and orders, those appointed earlier precede ...
The peerage also has a ceremonial aspect, and serves a role as a system of honour or award, with the granting of a peerage title forming the highest rung of the modern British honours system. Within the United Kingdom, due to the hereditary nature of most peerage titles historically, five peerage divisions currently co-exist, namely:
A peer derives his precedence from his highest-ranking title; peeresses derive their precedence in the same way, whether they hold their highest-ranking title in their own right or by marriage. The ranks in the tables refer to peers rather than titles: if exceptions are named for a rank, these do not include peers of a higher rank (or any peers ...
Aaron Chown/WPA Pool/Getty Images. Examples: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex . The highest degree of the British peerage system, a duke or duchess title is traditionally granted to a prince and his ...
In the Peerage of England, the title of duke was created 74 times (using 40 different titles: the rest were recreations).Three times a woman was created a duchess in her own right; Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, chief mistress of Charles II of England, Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch, wife of Charles II's eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, and Cecilia Underwood ...
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 thirteen (nine non-royal and four royal) people have been created hereditary peers sinc