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- So Mr. Darcy.
He's just so great.
He's super rich.
He has a nice house.
He has a family that's long been honorable and esteemed,
but for some strange reason, he just doesn't have a title.
Well, other than mister, of course,
we all know that he is Mr. Darcy.
But exactly why doesn't he have a noble title of peerage
such as being a Duke or an Earl or a Viscount?
And the answer to that question is very interesting
and that's what we're going to be diving into here today.
So if you want to know why Mr. Darcy is simply a mister,
then definitely keep tuned.
My name is Ellie Dashwood and this is my channel
where we talk about Jane Austen
and the Regency Era quite a bit.
So if you like either of those things
then definitely subscribe.
So when it comes to Mr. Darcy's family not having a title,
it's definitely not because they aren't rich enough.
Because as we learned in the video
is Mr. Darcy actually rich.
He has more than what an average English Lord
earns every year, which then brings us down to if,
it's not a money issue,
then what is really happening here?
And to set the basis for this discussion,
let's turn to listen to
the glorious Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Here is what she has the say about Mr. Darcy's family
and their standing in society.
This is coming from the scene
when she's telling Elizabeth like,
"Hey, don't you try to marry my nephew."
And Elizabeth is like, "What you're gonna do about it?"
Anyway, this is what Lady Catherine says,
"My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other.
They are descended, on the maternal side,
from the same noble line; and on the other's
from respectable, honorable, and ancient,
though untitled families.
Their fortune on both sides is splendid."
Okay so we learn a few things about Darcy's family here.
First on his mother's side,
Mr. Darcy does descend from nobility.
In fact, Lady Catherine gets her title
of Lady Catherine from the fact that she is the daughter
of an Earl, Mr. Darcy's mother Lady Anne
was of course a Lady Anne,
because she was the daughter of an Earl.
Those were their courtesy titles,
which is what the children of an English Peer get to use
as a social nicety because their dad is a Peer.
You can learn more about that in my video
on what is an English Lord.
So that's where Lady Anne
and Lady Catherine get their titles from their father.
But those are not the sort of titles
that they can pass down to their children.
So on Mr. Darcy's mother's side,
he does descend from title, nobility.
Now, what does it say about the father's side?
Maybe Catherine calls those families respectable,
honorable, and ancient.
This means that they have a very, very long history
of being well, super wealthy and high on the social scale.
They are new money by any estimation of the word.
And then she adds the fact that they are untitled.
So Mr. Darcy's father's family is untitled
and generally in English history,
titles pass down the paternal line.
Now there are of course exceptions to this,
but that is exactly what they are.
They are exceptions to the rule.
And so here there is no title
being passed down in Darcy's family.
And of course, then the question comes up is why?
Why does he not have a title?
Because again, he's not new money.
His family has been around being rich forever.
So why didn't no one ever give him a title?
So the answer to that question
involves several different factors,
especially because we don't know the entire history
of the Darcy family.
It's not laid out for us, they're in "Pride and Prejudice."
But one thing we do know
is the fact that they don't have a title
yet they've been around forever.
So one possibility could be that they had a title
at some point in history, but then they lost it
because they could not produce a male heir
in some past generation.
So for example, say 200 years ago,
the Darcy's did something very valiant,
like supporting the Monarch during a time of trouble
and the Monarch was like,
"Hey, good job, Darcy family, here's a title."
And they're like, "Yeah, we're so fancy."
Usually when a family is given a title like that,
there are rules that govern how that title
can be passed on to the next generation,
is usually called the titles remainder.
I don't know why.
It's just basically who gets to inherit.
The most common remainder is heirs male of the body,
meaning that only legitimate male heirs
of the original title holder can inherit that title.
So if you get one of these titles
with the remainder of heirs male of the body,
and do you have a son, he gets to inherit it.
But what if you only have daughters?
Can it skip the daughter and go to maybe a grandson?
The answer is no, it can't.
And what happens is the title just dies out.
So some titles were only one generation long
because the man who got it couldn't have a son
or some titles existed a little bit longer,
but say you have one son and three daughters, okay?
And then that son only has one son and a daughter.
And then that son only has daughters,
or actually doesn't even get married
and has no children at all.
Again, the title dies out
because there is no more heirs male of the body.
And what's super fascinating is between the late 1600s
and about 1770, there was this huge problem
for some reason of lines dying out of both titles
and people who owned a lot of the land
because a lot of male heirs were one, not marrying at all,
and two, if they did marry,
they were not able to produce male offspring.
And another reason people lost their titles
during this time period
is because they failed to like this video.
I think it was in every single letters patent
that the Monarch uses to issue titles.
That if you fail to like Ellie Dashwood's video,
you just lose your title.
This is a very real and legal thing.
Okay, oo, no, it is not.
But if you wanted to like this video,
I would greatly appreciate it, thank you.
So back to the Darcy question, say in the Darcy family
there was a forbearer who became Lord Pemberley per se.
And it worked for a few generations.
He had a son, his son was able to have a son.
So they were passing down this title
and eventually got to a generation where
Lord Pemberley only had one daughter.
She couldn't inherit that title.
So one of two things would happen,
either the title would completely die out
and nobody gets to be Lord Pemberley anymore.
Or the title could pass to another male heir of the body
of the original title holder.
So for example, if Lord Pemberley has a younger brother,
the younger brother could inherit,
the younger brother's son could inherit the title.
And so the title would then go
into a different branch of the family.
So this is exactly what we see happening in "Downton Abbey."
But what's interesting about this is if we go back to this
Lord Pemberley having one daughter situation,
she could still inherit the estate.
The estate wasn't necessarily tied to the title itself.
Usually they went together,
but barring and previous Intel that prevented this,
the father could leave the daughter, the estate,
even if the title went into a different branch
of the family.
Also, if the title just completely dies out,
well, then she would still be inheriting the estate,
but not the title.
Then you might be saying if that happened
and there was a time that the Pemberley estate
had to pass through a female line,
then why would the last name still be Darcy?
Well, one possibility is that she marries a relative
with the same last name.
Another possibility is because if there was a girl
who was that big of an heiress,
the family could require the man marrying her
to take on their family last name
in order to continue the line.
And this is an issue that Frances Burney
really goes into in her novel, "Cecilia."
And if you don't know who Frances Bernie is,
then definitely check out my video on her book, "Evelina"
and if it inspired Jane Austen at all.
Anyway, basically just to sum all this up,
the Darcy family could have had a noble title
at some point in their history,
but for one reason or another, they lost it
either because it died out
or had to go into a different branch of the family.
So that is one reason.
Now let's talk about why they don't have a more modern title
perhaps received within the past few generations.
So if we go back to this thought of,
"Well, oh, Darcy has a lot of money, he has a lot of land,
why doesn't he have title?"
Well, one reason is
because they didn't just give you a title
because you were rich.
It wasn't like, "Hey, you're rich.
You got a lot of land, here's a title,
go forth and be noble."
This is not how things worked.
In fact, like everything in life,
people getting titles in the 17 and 1800s had to work at it.
So of course of being rich was definitely
usually a prerequisite to getting a title,
but that wasn't the only thing you had to do.
So what exactly did you have to do that?
Well, put very, very simply
you had to kiss up to people.
Like serious kissing up social strategizing,
becoming like "Bosom Buddies" with guys with titles
who might have influence on the King,
might recommend you for a title,
becoming a Member of Parliament,
and backing up whatever they wanted to pass
through Parliament, going to London
and hanging around the court,
getting some court positions,
trying to buddy up to the right people.
And then of course, money always helps.
There's a rumor that when the Earls of Devonshire
upgraded to being the Dukes of Devonshire
money might've changed hands behind the scenes
to make that happen.
Now this is a rumor.
I don't think we'll ever know if it's true or not,
but I think it does sort of show exactly
how getting a lot of titles during this era worked.
So editing Ellie here to answer a question
that some of you've been asking
about whether Mr. Darcy
could possibly become a Lord in the future.
After him and Elizabeth get married,
could they possibly become a Lord and Lady?
And the answer to that is of course, totally yes.
If he wanted to pursue becoming a Lord,
he could definitely do so.
And in fact, he has one of the greatest advantages already
to becoming a Lord which is being related
to a member of the peerage.
In fact, that the majority of new peerages
that were created during this era were for those
who were in some way related to
someone who was already a Lord.
I think a great example of this would be
the Duke of Wellington
who yes, of course received his dukedom
because of his great service to the English Empire.
But the guy was also already the son of a Lord.
So, I mean, he had that going for him.
Of course, many of the men who would be recognized
for their great deeds with peerage titles
were already of that class and often of those families
and that were already in the nobility.
So it really was very hard
to break into the English nobility
if you were not of the right social standing
and family background during this time.
And since Mr. Darcy is the grandson of an Earl,
he has that going for him.
Of course, if you had to really wanted
to optimize his chances for becoming a Lord,
he would have married the daughter of another Peer as well.
Which of course he didn't do,
but that doesn't completely count him out of the running.
So as the grandson of an Earl,
he has this huge advantage to capitalize on that.
What he would want to do is run for election
to be come a member of the House of Commons,
which is of course,
one part of the English Parliament system.
Anyway, once there, what he would want to do
is continue to social network, make friends in high places,
hang around the court and essentially do all of the things
that we've already talked about
when it comes to hobnobbing with the rich
and the noble so that they will want to give you
a peerage too.
Now do I really foresee Mr. Darcy wanting to do that?
Not really, it doesn't seem within his personality
to me at least, but alas,
he could, if he so chose.
And so it could simply be that the Darcy's are a family
that is not interested in being in Parliament.
They're not interested in kissing up to people
and they would rather just be great landlords,
masters, and husbands to Elizabeth Bennet,
rather than trying to get a title.
Now, I wanna talk a little bit about "Pride and Prejudice",
the book itself and I think internal reason we're given
for why Darcy doesn't have a title, which is again,
back to that scene where Elizabeth is talking
to Lady Catherine, and this is what they say to each other.
So continuing from where we left
Lady Catherine off ranting earlier, she says,
"Their fortune on both sides of splendid.
They are destined for each other
by the voice of every member of their respective houses
and what is to divide them?
The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family,
connections or fortune.
Is this to be endured! But it must not, shall not be.
If you were sensible of your own good,
you would not wish to quit the sphere
in which you have been brought up."
So Lady Catherine is like,
"You're not good enough for my nephew."
And what's interesting is how Elizabeth responds.
"In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself
as quitting that sphere.
He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter;
so far we are equal."
Okay, so right there where she says he is a gentleman,
I'm a gentleman's daughter, so far we are equal.
If Darcy was an English Peer, she could never say that line.
I know this is kind of simplistic to be saying,
but that line could not be in "Pride and Prejudice."
She would have to say, "He is an English Peer,
I'm a gentleman's daughter, so far we are not equal."
So I really do think one of the reasons
that Darcy doesn't have a title is the fact that
it would change the social dynamics
between him and Elizabeth a little bit.
And I think Jane Austen just didn't want that.
I also think that Jane Austen tends to stay away
from writing about people with titles
and that wasn't because she didn't associate
with people of title because she did.
I think that was just not her interest.
She wasn't interested in that world
as much as she was with the gentry.
Another reason could very well be the fact that,
Mr. Darcy sounds good.
Imagine if he really was Lord Pemberley
and Elizabeth was like,
"Lord Pemberley is the one for the..."
That would just sound kind
of totally unpride and prejudice, right?
That's not as classic as Mr. Darcy.
Imagine a world where "Pride and Prejudice" was a story
between Elizabeth Bennett and Lord Pemberley.
That would be strange, I'm just saying,
I mean, we would probably be used to it
because it'd be the strange alternate reality,
but it would be normal to us.
But I'm glad we don't live in that reality
because it's weird tempting.
So let me know in the comments below,
why do you think Mr. Darcy does not have a title
in "Pride and Prejudice?"
Do you think it's because his family had one in the past,
but it died out, the fact that Jane Austen's
just not interested in writing about people with titles
and also it would sound kind of strange?
Or do you think it's because of the Darcy's
are above bribery and kissing up to people?
Let me know in the comments below.
And also I just wanna mention about that quote
about Elizabeth and Darcy being equal
because he's a gentleman and she's a gentleman's daughter.
Being a definite class issue,
and I'm going to be making a video
about how much class plays into the relationship
of Elizabeth and Darcy
and really just the time period as a whole,
because class was definitely important.
So definitely subscribe if you wanna see that.
Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful time
viewing this video and continue to have an awesome
and amazing day 'cause you're awesome.
Bye.
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