Okay.
So today we're going to be talking about Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
That is right.
The super mean aunt of Mr.
Darcy, who wants to break up Elizabeth and Darcy forever.
She is one of the most famous mean girls of Jane Austen literature.
But have you ever wondered why is she a "lady"?
What is her title?
Exactly what makes her so fancy?
Well, in today's video, we're going to be breaking down
what's going on with her title of Lady, because it's actually
very interesting and very unique among Jane Austen's characters.
And we're going to be going a little bit more into the question
you guys keep asking of whether Mr.
Darcy could inherit Lady Catherine's title
and become a Lord.
Anyway, definitely stay tuned for all of that.
My name is Ellie Dashwood and this is my channel, where we talk
about history and literature.
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So first up, who is Lady Catherine?
Well, she's Mr.
Darcy's aunt in Pride and Prejudice.
And to understand her title, let's go all the way back to
when she was just a little girl.
At that stage of her life, she would have been known as
Lady Catherine Fitzwilliam.
That's correct.
Imagine Lady Catherine, as a kid.
I mean her governess's life must have been awful.
Just, just imagine this for a second.
It's kind of terrifying.
So Lady Catherine Fitzwilliam would have had that title of
Lady ever since birth because her father was an Earl.
The daughters of Earls get to use the title lady and then
their first name and last name.
So Lady Catherine Fitzwilliam.
And that is usually shortened down to "Lady first name"
in everyday conversation.
So "Lady Catherine."
And really courtesy titles, like this is something I go
into more in-depth in my video on "What is an English Lord?"
So definitely check that out if you want to know more about
titles and nobility in general.
There's a few things we know about Lady Catherine Fitzwilliam.
First, she had at least one brother who was going to become the next
Earl and one sister named Anne.
Now Lady Anne Fitzwilliam grew up and married a Mr.
Darcy.
Yep, Lady Anne becomes the mother of Mr.
Darcy.
Meanwhile Lady Catherine, his brother eventually becomes the
next Earl when their father dies.
And he has at least two sons.
One of them, the older one, who's going to inherit
the Earl title next.
And then also the younger son of Colonel Fitzwilliam.
But what about Lady Catherine?
What happens to her next?
Well, she gets married to.
And to discover her husband's name let's look at this section of Mr.
Collins letter to the Bennet family.
He says, "I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the
patronage of the Right Honorable Lady Catherine de Bourgh widow
of Sir Louis de Bourgh, who's bounty and beneficence has
preferred me to the valuable rectory of this parish."
That is right.
Lady Catherine grows up and marry some guy named Sir Louis.
And together they have one daughter named Anne de Bourgh.
So yes, if you're looking at the family tree here, this
does make Anne de Bourgh, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Mr.
Darcy all first cousins.
So this may be the first time that some of you are realizing that
throughout the whole book of Pride and Prejudice, people want Mr.
Darcy to marry his first cousin, but that was much
more common during the era.
Though, here is an important note.
A lot of people think that Elizabeth Bennet and Mr.
Collins are first cousins when really they are not.
The book calls him "a distant relation."
Meanwhile, first cousins, even though you could marry them were
still considered a closer relation.
So while Elizabeth and Mr.
Collins are probably some form of cousin, they are more distantly
related than being first cousins.
The reason they call him cousin throughout the book is
that was just a common way to refer to your extended family
relatives during the time.
So while Elizabeth and Mr.
Collins, aren't really first cousins, Mr.
Darcy and Anne de Bourgh are really first cousins related by blood
because their mothers are sisters.
Anyway, that's just a random side note.
Back to Lady Catherine.
She's now married to this guy named sir Louis de Bourgh.
So let's look at the "sir" part of "Sir Lewis."
Sir was a form of address for both knights and baronets.
We have a lot of Knights and baronets in Jane Austen's works.
The most important difference between them, I think is the
fact that baronets can pass along the "sir" to their
sons while a Knight cannot.
It is a one generation thing.
So for example, since Sir Walter Elliot in Persuasion is
a Baronet, he can pass along his Baronet status to his son or
the next male in the male line from the original title holder,
which in Persuasion is Mr.
Elliott.
Meanwhile, simple knights like Sir William Lucas in
Pride and Prejudice cannot pass that on to anybody else.
His "sir" status is going to die with him.
So Knights and baronets were usually called sir and
then their first name and their wives were called Lady
and then their last name.
And we see this consistently done throughout Jane Austen's books.
In Mansfield Park, we have Sir Thomas married to Lady Bertram.
In Sense and Sensibility, we have, Sir John married to Lady Middleton.
In Pride and Prejudice, we have Sir William married to Lady Lucas.
And in Persuasion, we have, Sir Walter married to Lady Elliot.
So exactly what is going on here.
Why, when she got married, did Lady Catherine not
become Lady de Bourgh?.
All the other baronets and Knights' wives are Lady last name.
Why is she still Lady first name?
And to answer that question, we have to talk a little bit about
Knights and baronets and where they stood in the social hierarchy.
So I think us often the sound of sir and Lady when
it comes to Knights and baronets can sound super fancy,
like, "Wow, they're a sir.
They must be super high ranking."
But the truth is Knights and baronets actually, were not
that high ranking when compared to true titled families.
And I think it can be a little bit confusing when we
talk about the word "title."
Because technically even something as simple as
"miss" is a title, right?
But when we talk about the upper-class and nobility,
what we're talking about is titles of the English peerage
system, those titles of actual nobility, like earl and
viscount, and baron and duke.
Those are true titles.
Meanwhile, knights and baronets were not considered nobility.
They were not considered titled.
And in fact, they were considered commoners, they ranked quite
a bit below anybody with those titles of nobility.
So let's actually look at something Lady Catherine says
when she's describing the family background of her daughter and Mr.
Darcy.
She says, "They are descended on the maternal side from the same
noble line and on the fathers from respectable, honored and ancient
--though untitled-- families."
So, do you see how, even though Anne de Bourgh's father was a
sir, she says the Anne does not descend from a titled family.
Because again, he was not a member of the nobility.
He did not have one of those true noble titles.
Meanwhile Lady Catherine did descend from one of
those noble families.
Again, she was the daughter of an Earl.
So when Lady Catherine married, Sir Lewis, she was marrying
someone who was beneath her on the social hierarchy.
Now they were still in the same social sphere.
They were still all in the upper class, but when it came down to
the direct pecking order within that sphere, she was above him
by about 12 levels of precedence.
Meaning if they were lining up according to their social ranking
to go into dinner, she would be way ahead of him in line.
So usually during this era, when a woman got married, she
would take on her husband's precedence and social standing.
However, again, if Lady Catherine did that, she would
be taking a 12 level hit.
Which would be a major deal for someone like Lady Catherine.
But thankfully for her, the rules of this state, that a daughter of
an Earl, if she marries a commoner can keep her higher title and her
level of precedence upon marriage.
So when Lady Catherine married a commoner, she got to keep
the precedence and also to stay "Lady Catherine."
Now, I feel like this is something that's super subtle in Pride
and Prejudice that not a lot of people pick up on, but her being
a "Lady first name" is actually a huge social distinction compared
to all of the "lady last names."
Being Lady first name in this instance is a major
social flex that gets lost on modern readers I think.
Because it is a higher title.
Now, on a complete side note, had Lady Catherine married a member
of the peerage, like a baron, for example, she would have taken on
his title and precedence because he was a member of the nobility.
Even though in this instance, becoming a Baroness would have
made her take a lower title and lower precedence than
what she had been born with.
But because he was a member of the nobility that's how it
worked, but she got to keep hers because she married a commoner.
So really quick, let's talk about this question that
keeps coming up of whether Mr.
Darcy could inherit a title from Lady Catherine or her husband.
The answer is no, but here is why.
First of all, Lady Catherine's title of Lady first name is,
again, that courtesy title that she gets to use because she
is the daughter of an Earl.
That is a status that she can't pass on anybody.
She can't be like, "Darcy, you are now the daughter of an Earl."
That's not how that works.
So she can't even pass that title along to her own daughter.
And also Mr.
Darcy's mom already had the title of Lady Anne, so if he was going
to be able to inherit that from anybody, that'd be his own mother.
But again, lady Anne could also not pass along the status of
being the daughter of an Earl.
So no title there for Mr.
Darcy.
The second option people wonder about is Sir Lewis' title.
Could Darcy become Sir Fitzwilliam.
And the answer is no.
First off, if Sir Lewis was a knight, then that
title died with them.
He could not pass that on anybody.
But if he was a Baronet, he still couldn't pass that title to Darcy
because really the only people who could inherit the title
of being a Baronet was a male
blood descendant of the original title older.
So because Mr.
Darcy is not the blood son of sir Lewis, he has no hope
of inheriting that title.
Even if he married his cousin, Anne.
Meanwhile, since men were the only ones who could inherit, Anne
clearly did not inherit that title.
So then the question comes up.
What did . Happen to Sir Louis' title if he was a Baronet?
One of two things, either it died with him because there
was no one else to inherit it.
Or it passed away another de Bourgh family male line descendant
that could inherit the title.
So may have gone to one of the Anne's cousins on that side
of the family or something.
Anyway, basically, just to sum all of this up: Lady Catherine
was born Lady Catherine.
And when she got married, she did not want to take a 12
levels of precedence hit by becoming Lady to de Bourgh.
So she just stayed Lady Catherine.
And is secretly flexing on us all, even though it was totally
lost on everybody, mostly.
Anyway, I hope this helped clear up any questions you had about
Lady Catherine and her title.
Let me know in the comments below, if you were born, say
the child of a high-ranking peer and you had a higher title, and
then you married a commoner, would you keep your title?
I think I would.
I would stay Lady Electra.
I'd be so fancy.
Anyway, I hope you guys are all having an awesome and amazing
day and keep being awesome.
Bye!!!!
*upbeat classical music plays*