Hi, my name is Ellie Dashwood.
And this is another episode of Dashie Notes.
Today, we'll be discussing lords, ladies and forms of address
for the peerage of England.
In Jane Austen's works, we see a lot of people with, you know, the
everyday titles of Mr., Mrs., Miss.
But we also see Lords and Ladies and Sirs.
And what do all those titles mean?
What is an English Lord after all?
And why are some people an English Lord, but then other guys, like Mr.
Darcy, are not?
Those are great questions.
And let's answer them for you here today on Dashie Notes,
where we answer your modern day questions about classic literature.
So what is an English Lord?
Well, an English Lord is essentially a man who bears one of the five
titles of peerage in England.
Now he could have inherited this title from his father, or he had the King
or queen bestow this title upon him.
The five titles of nobility in England that makes someone a peer are: Duke,
Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron.
But let's take a closer look at what these titles mean and different ways
we see them approached in classic literature and period dramas to
better be able to understand them.
So first we'll be discussing peers and their wives.
Second, we'll be discussing the children of peers and courtesy titles.
And the third, we'll be discussing baronets and Knights who are actually
not peers, but they're getting a special mention in this video anyway, because we
see a lot of them in classic literature.
So first peers and their wives.
Now you may wonder, how does someone actually become a peer?
Well, as we were already talking about, they are given that
title by the King or Queen.
Now, once a man was given a title by the King or Queen, he can pass
that down his hereditary line.
So his son inherits it, his grandson inherits it, his great
great grandson inherits it.
But what initially made the King or Queen give him that title?
More than likely it was for some act of service or loyalty
to the nation or the King.
So in the medieval era, it may be a wealthy landlord pledging their
loyalty to the Monarch that made the Monarch bestow this title on him.
Or more modern, like how I say modern, like the Duke of Wellington, he was
a valiant warrior who defended the country from the French and Napoleon.
And so he was named the Duke of Wellington.
So there's a variety of ways these titles were given out to these
families, but now can pass them down through their generations.
Another way some people become titled is in the case of Royal Dukes.
Now there are normal Dukes and Royal Dukes.
And a lot of Royal Dukes are princes who, when they get married or they
come of age, they're given a dukedom.
Which is an actual word by the way, the dukedom.
That sounds really weird.
Anyway, we got a perfect example of this when Prince William married
Kate Middleton, they were made the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
And that is why she is known as the Duchess of Cambridge.
So being an English Lord, also known as being a peer and being part of the
nobility, also has some perks to it other than just having fancy titles.
They often got to serve in the House of Lords.
Which I was reading has totally changed since then, because there
was like reform in the 1990s.
Apparently they didn't want this old feudal system anymore.
I don't know.
But also if they ever committed a felony, they got to be
tried by the House of Lords.
Which I don't know.
I mean, would you really, like if you committed a felony, want your
felony to be tried by like all like the social, like people of your
social circle and friends and stuff?
Which I mean, it could be good or it could be bad or it could just be really gossipy.
Now, you may wonder about the order of precedence.
Are some titles more important than others or carry more social clout?
And the answer is yes.
From the highest ranking to the lowest ranking as I've already listed
them, but I'll list them again.
There are: Dukes, Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts and Barons.
Now this was very important, especially back in history because this would even
affect how people walked into dinner.
A good housewife would know exactly who she invited to dinner.
She would know all of their social standings and ranks, and she would line
them up according to order of precedence.
So Dukes would get a walk into the dinner room before a Baron would.
And this stuff got super complicated.
These women had to keep books on hand that they were supposed to
study before they even had a dinner party to make sure that they knew
exactly everyone's social standing.
Because if you had like two Dukes, but one of them's family had had the title of
Duke in it for longer than the other one.
He would get to walk in first to the dinner.
And so this stuff got serious.
But yeah, I would still be happy being a Baroness.
Even though it's like the lowest rank.
So I mean, if there was a very cute Baron watching this, yes,
I would not hold it against you that you're not as high as a Duke.
So we've talked about how they get their titles.
We've talked about which title is higher on the social standing.
And now we're going to talk about their wives because a peer's wife
also got a title and she also got to take on her husband's precedence.
So here we go with listing their titles.
So the wife of a Duke is, of course, a Duchess.
The wife of a Marquess is a Marchioness.
The wife of an Earl is a Countess, which I always found kind of funny.
And we see this a lot in Downton Abbey, cause he's an Earl and she's a Countess.
And when I was a younger, I was so confused because it was just
like, "Shouldn't she be an Earless?
Or shouldn't he be a Count?"
But it's not.
So, I guess we're just supposed to accept that Earls are married to Countesses.
I don't know who first came up with that.
Moving on.
Viscounts are, thankfully, married to Viscountesses.
And of course, Barons are married to Baronesses.
Now these women, that is their official title.
So now we've talked about how they got the title, which title has more social
clout and what their wives titles are.
But have you ever noticed in classic literature and period dramas, we
don't hear a lot of people saying, "Earl, Count, Duke" very much.
We just hear of a lot of Lords and Ladies.
And that's because in everyday speech, people didn't use their
official titles very much.
Instead they would simplify it down to Lord or Lady.
So for example, in Downton Abbey, we have the Earl of Grantham.
But we hear him and his wife called Lord and Lady Grantham.
Because that's what they did.
They would take what they were say the Earl of, or the Viscount
of, in this example Grantham.
And put Lord or Lady before it.
So they would become Lord or Lady Grantham, you know?
So the Earl of Kent would be Lord Kent and his wife would be Lady Kent.
The Baron of Southwick would become Lord Southwick and Lady Southwick.
And so it was somewhat of an equalizing thing.
Everyone still knew they were an Earl or whatever, but in everyday
speech, they didn't say it.
And of course, if you were their friends, you would just call them say
Grantham, instead of Lord Grantham.
If you were the servants, you would call them my Lord or my Lady.
And that's why we got lots of Lords and Ladies in England.
Now a big exception to this is Dukes and Duchesses because
they're never called Lord or Lady.
Instead, they are called Duke and Duchess by their social peers.
And by people who are lower than them on the social status, they
were called my grace or your grace.
So like, "Of course, your grace.
Would you like this apple?"
I don't know where I come up with the stuff really that I see in these videos.
Two, peers' children and courtesy titles.
So we've talked about the titles of peers, such as Duke and Duchess.
But we also see a lot of people who are titled in classic literature and
period dramas who are not actual peers.
They're instead the children of peers.
So they would be the Duke and Duchess' children who have titles.
But those aren't real legal titles.
Instead, they're sort of like social niceties that are given
to the children of peers.
But of course there are social rules that go with those too.
And so we'll be discussing that here today.
I'm just going to go over some of the most basic rules and then
give you an example of this.
So the daughters of Dukes, Marquesses, and Earls are called Lady plus their
first name and their last name.
We see this in Downton Abbey because all of those daughters
are the daughters of an Earl.
So they're Lady Mary Crawley, Lady Edith Crawley, Lady Sybil Crawley.
And so we saw the Lady first name last name.
And then everyday life, they're just known as Lady Mary.
Also the younger sons of Dukes and Marquesses are known as
Lord first name last name.
So if a Marquess had a son named John Smith.
He'd be Lord John Smith.
Meanwhile, the daughters and younger sons of Viscounts and Barons, as
well as the younger sons of Earls are simply known as honorables.
Now this is not something usually said out loud or to the person.
You see it in writing more.
Or maybe if someone's talking about someone and they want to get it
across that they're an honorable.
But we see this in Jane Austen's Persuasion where the daughter
of a Viscount is called The Honorable Miss Carteret.
Because that's her title.
Because her father was a Viscount, she gets to be an honorable.
Which I don't think is as fancy as a lady.
I think it's kind of weird actually, but she's still The Honorable Miss Carteret.
And you may have a notice that I left the older sons out of all of these equations.
And that was because usually a peer had more than one title.
So the Duke of Devonshire also holds the title of the Marquess of Hartington.
So since it's his son and heir, he allows his son to sort of borrow
one of his lesser titles and call himself the Marquess of Hartington.
Which in everyday language would be simplified down to Lord Hartington.
And the wife of Lord Hartington would be Lady Hartington.
Until, of course the older son's father died and he inherited
to be the Duke of Devonshire.
So if you want to actually watch my video about the time I almost met
the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, you should watch my other video.
I will link to it here.
It is really not that exciting, but I was super excited by it.
Now, okay.
Let's use an example to better understand all of this naming problems
in the family and how this could cause confusion when watching period dramas.
The other day, I was watching Downton Abbey with my mother and she asked
me this question: "Why does Lord and Lady Grantham have a different last
name than their daughter Mary Crawley?
And why does Mary Crawley have the same last name as her cousin
Matthew Crawley, if her parents have the last name Grantham?"
So do you see what the problem is here in this question
that's causing the confusion?
It is that a Lord and Ladies don't use their last name as part of their
title, such as in Lord and Lady Crawley.
Instead they use the title, the Earl of Grantham.
And so they take Grantham and they put that after Lord or Lady.
And so the parent's names are still Robert and Cora Crawley, but they just are known
in everyday life as Lord and Lady Grantham because he's the Earl of Grantham.
And that's why the daughter is just known as Lady Mary Crawley,
because that's her courtesy title.
And she doesn't have the title Grantham, because that belongs to her father.
Does that make more sense now?
Do you see how this could get very confusing if you didn't understand
that they use the what they were the Lord of as part of their Lord
or Lady name versus their last name.
So there's a simplification for you.
So three, baronets and knights.
We see a lot of these in classic literature, such as Sir Walter
Elliot in Persuasion, we have Sir William Lucas in Pride and Prejudice.
And we have Sir Thomas Bertram in Mansfield Park.
But what are Knights and Baronets?
Are they peers?
The answer is no, they are not part of the nobility.
In fact, they're more like, sort of like upper middle class kind
of like butting up against the edge of nobility, but they're not.
Instead they're below that sadly.
It's a lot easier to become a Knight, which is not hereditary title, but rather
it's just something you get, because you probably did something really great.
Or something even mildly okay.
Like Sir William in Pride and Prejudice was I believe a mayor of a
town and that got him to be knighted.
But it's not hereditary, so he cannot pass it onto his sons.
However, the wife of a sir gets to be called a Lady.
She used to be called a Dame, but then they started calling themselves
ladies, which makes it very, even more confusing when you're dealing with the
peerage, where they really are ladies.
So I think, you know, some of the peers ladies would like it if the
ladies who were married to knights went back to being called Dame.
But Dame kind of sounds funny.
So I see why they want to be called ladies.
Meanwhile, a Baronet is a hereditary knighthood, so they're still called Sir.
But they can pass it on to their sons.
Also the wife of a Baronet is also called a Lady such as
Lady Bertram in Mansfield Park.
Which here's another side point when it comes to Knights and baronets, which
is that the correct form of address for them is Sir plus their first name.
Such as Sir William, Sir Walter, Sir Thomas.
But for the wife, it is Lady and then their family last name.
So Lady Bertram, Lady Lucas , Lady Elliot.
And we have a perfect example of this also in the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Sir Percy Blakeney is a Baronet and that's why we see him often
referred to as Sir Percy and Marguerite is known as Lady Blakeney.
I love that movie.
You should check that movie out too.
So in conclusion, what is an English Lord?
Well, it's a man who carries one of the five titles of peerage
in the English peerage system.
Which are of course, Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Baron.
For some reason, halfway through this list I always forget like who's next.
I don't know why.
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Dashie Notes and learned something
new that answers a question about classic literature or modern day stuff too.
I mean, these guys are still around.
There are still like 24 Dukes who are non Royal in the UK right now.
So you can go meet them.
I wonder if any of them are cute and single.
This is a very good question.
So in the comments below, answer this question.
If you live during Regency times, what noble title would you want to have?
I of course, would want to be a Duchess.
Though, then you'd have to be called your grace all the time
and I'm not very graceful.
And so that might be kind of weird.
And so maybe I should rethink this.
Maybe I should settle for the lesser title.
I don't know.
Also make sure to subscribe to my channel for more videos about classic
literature and period dramas, and also make sure to check me out on
Instagram, where I post stuff about classic literature and period dramas.
Who would have guessed that was going to come happen in here.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day and be awesome.
Bye.