What is the highest title in the English peerage?
409902#4
In the following table, each peer is listed only by his or her highest English title (with the exception of the Duke of Norfolk/Earl of Arundel) showing higher or equal titles in the other peerages. Those peers who are known by a higher title in one of the other peerages are listed in "italics".
Peerage of England
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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. Under English inheritance law all daughters are co-heirs, so many older English peerage titles have fallen into abeyance between various female co-heirs.
Peerage of England
18685580#0
In the British peerage, a royal duke is a member of the British royal family, entitled to the titular dignity of prince and the style of "His Royal Highness" who holds a dukedom. Dukedoms are the highest titles in the British roll of peerage and the holders of these particular dukedoms are Princes of the Blood Royal. The holders of the dukedoms are royal not the titles themselves. They are titles created and bestowed on legitimate sons and male-line grandsons of the British monarch, usually upon reaching their majority or marriage. The titles can be inherited but cease to be called "royal" once they pass beyond the grandsons of a monarch. As with any peerage, once the title becomes extinct, it may subsequently be recreated by the reigning monarch at any time.
Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom
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Duke, in the United Kingdom, is the highest-ranking hereditary title in all four peerages of the British Isles. A duke thus outranks all other holders of titles of nobility (marquess, earl, viscount and baron).
Dukes in the United Kingdom
192649#0
The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron. As of 2016, there were 135 titles in the Peerage of Ireland extant: two dukedoms, ten marquessates, 43 earldoms, 28 viscountcies, and 52 baronies. The Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland continues to exercise jurisdiction over the Peerage of Ireland, including those peers whose titles derive from places located in what is now the Republic of Ireland. Article 40.2 of the Irish Constitution forbids the state conferring titles of nobility and a citizen may not accept titles of nobility or honour except with the prior approval of the Government. As stated above, this issue does not arise in respect of the Peerage of Ireland, as no creations of titles in it have been made since the Constitution came into force.
Peerage of Ireland
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In the following table of the Peerage of Ireland as it currently stands, each peer's highest titles in each of the other peerages (if any) are also listed. Irish peers possessed of titles in any of the other peerages (except Scotland, which only got the right to an automatic seat in 1963, with the Peerage Act 1963) had automatic seats in the House of Lords until 1999.
Peerage of Ireland
438840#1
The marquessate of Reading is the highest title in the British peerage ever attained by a Jew, and is the most recently created "extant" marquessate in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (that of Willingdon was created in 1936 but became extinct in 1979). In this role, the marquessate of Reading is currently the junior-most marquessate in the Order of precedence in England and Wales.
Marquess of Reading
526652#1
The title of Marquess of Dublin, which is perhaps best described as Anglo-Irish, was the first to be created, in 1385, but like the next few creations, the title was soon forfeit. The title of Marquess of Pembroke, created in 1532 by Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn, has the distinction of being the first English hereditary peerage granted to a woman in her own right (styled "Marchioness" in the patent). The English title Marquess of Winchester, created in 1551, is the earliest still extant, so is Premier Marquess of England. The title long remained less common, and on the evening of the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne explained to her (from her journals): 
"I spoke to Ld M. about the numbers of Peers present at the Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented. I observed that there were very few Viscounts, to which he replied "There are very few Viscounts," that they were an old sort of title & not really English; that they came from Vice-Comites; that Dukes & Barons were the only real English titles; — that Marquises were likewise not English, & that people were mere made Marquises, when it was not wished that they should be made Dukes".
List of marquessates in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
58254#28
Individuals who use the style "Lord" or "Lady" are not necessarily peers. Children of peers use special titles called courtesy titles. The heir apparent of a duke, a marquess, or an earl generally uses his father's highest lesser peerage dignity as his own. Hence, the Duke of Devonshire's son is called Marquess of Hartington. Such an heir apparent is called a "courtesy peer", but is a commoner until such time as he inherits (unless summoned by a writ in acceleration).
Peerages in the United Kingdom
367634#2
Peers and their families make up a large part of these tables. It is possible for a peer to hold more than one title of nobility, and these may belong to different ranks and peerages. 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 at all, in the case of baronets). No exceptions are named for most categories, owing to their large size.
Order of precedence in England and Wales