The nobility refers to those of noble rank. Another collective term you might be familiar with is the Peerage. The different levels—or ranks—of peers are:
Duke
Marquess
Earl
Viscount
Baron
Only the title holder is a Peer of the Realm. Their spouse and children are technically commoners. Unlike some of the old European kingdoms, the noble rank did not extend to anyone else in the family. Although the majority of peers were men, a small number of titles were able to pass through the female line, in which case the holder is a peeress.
It was possible, and not uncommon, for a peer to hold more than one rank, as they were usually granted their titles in return for services to the king or queen. Over multiple generations, a family with a barony might later be granted a viscountcy or an earldom, but they didn't have to be given titles in rank order, like promotions. A baron didn't have to be made a viscount before he could become an earl.
One example of this was the family of the Duke of Devonshire. William Cavendish was made a baron in 1605. (Baron Cavendish of Hardwick) The same man was later made the first Earl of Devonshire in 1618. Less than a hundred years later, in 1694, the fourth earl was made Marquess of Hartington and Duke of Devonshire at the same time, in recognition of his service to the then king and queen, William & Mary.
You could also receive or inherit two titles of the same rank, e.g. two baronies or two earldoms. The Duke of Hamilton, for example, holds two dukedoms, two marquessates, three earldoms, a barony and three Scottish Lordships.
Inheriting the title
"Great was my surprise one morning, when sitting down to breakfast, to be told that I was no longer Master Willy, but Lord William, and that my elder brother, instead of being Master Charles, was henceforth to be called the Earl of March."
[Lord William Pitt Lennox, My Recollections from 1806 to 1873, vol. 1, pub. 1874, describing the day his father succeeded as the 4th Duke of Richmond]
Noble titles pass to the heir (or next-in-line) on the death of the titleholder. A peer cannot choose his heir, and cannot leave his title to someone in his will.
There is no one rule for inheriting a peerage. It all depends on what manner of succession was agreed at the time the title was created, and what limitations were placed upon it.
The most common option was inheritance by direct male heirs of the body; those who can trace a male-line descent back to the original titleholder. In the case of English, Irish or British titles, the heirs also had to be legitimate, i.e. born after their parent's marriage. Only in Scotland could an illegitimate child be made legitimate by his parents later marriage.
So if a peer dies without sons, they would go back to his father's generation. If the father has surviving brothers then the eldest surviving will inherit. If there are no surviving brothers, but there are nephews, then the nephew whose father was the eldest would inherit. If there were no brothers or nephews they would look a generation back to the grandfather's generation and search for surviving brothers' sons and grandsons. They will continue looking for a valid heir to the title, right back to the sons of the original titleholder. (but not the brothers of the original holder)
There are two types of heir. The first is the heir apparent, which means their place in the line of succession, and their right to inherit, cannot be changed by the birth of another person. An example of this would be the eldest son, and the eldest son of an eldest son. They can only lose their place in the line of succession by their own death.
The second type of heir is the heir presumptive. In this case, their position in the line of succession can be changed by the birth of another child. An example of this would be a second son. While his elder brother remains unmarried, he will be the presumed next heir in line. However, once his brother marries and has a son of his own, the baby would move his uncle down in the line of succession, as the child would become his father's heir apparent.
Although it might seem unfair to us today that only the male line could inherit a title, it was mostly done to keep the title within one family. Where titles can be inherited by females, as soon as the female heir to the title marries, the title then passes with her into her new family. These titles might pass through seven or eight different families within a couple of hundred years.
In English Law, male inheritance went from eldest to youngest, with the heirs of an elder son favoured over a younger son, and sons over daughters, but there was no similar precedence among daughters. If there was no son to inherit, and daughters were allowed to inherit, then any daughters would be equally able to inherit.
As a title cannot be shared between more than one person, it would be held in Abayance - in other words, it would be held by no one. So, for example, if a Barony can be inherited by females, and there are only three sisters in the family, the title is held in abayance until they agree which of them was to inherit the title. If they could not agree, titles could be held in abayance for decades until there was only one person left who could inherit the title.
In Scottish Law preference is given for elder daughters over younger ones, so a Scottish peerage would never need to go into Abayance.
Succession
A title will transfer to the heir upon the death of the titleholder, but this would only give him the title, and not the right to sit in the House of Lords. Traditionally the heir would wait until after the funeral before using his new title.
To fully claim all the privileges of a peer, the heir had to submit a written claim to the Lord Chancellor, which set out why he was entitled to his title. The claimant would have to prove that his parents were legally married prior to his birth and that no one else living had a better claim. He also has to confirm that he is over 21, and a member of the Church of England. As the aristocracy was a relatively small group of people, proving his case was not usually difficult.
Lord Byron took his seat in the House of Lords on 13th March 1809, fifty days following his 21st birthday. The delay was reportedly due to the difficulty in proving the marriage of his father's parents, which had taken place in 1748.
If an heir presumptive is next in line to inherit the title, he also has to submit a claim to the Lord Chancellor, stating how he is related to the previous title holder, and providing proof that there are no other living people who can have a better claim to the title.
When two claimants appear, or if there is any question over the legitimacy of a claim, the case is put before the Committee on Privilege of the House of Lords. They will investigate each claim to make sure the rightful heir succeeds to the title.
Once the claim is accepted, the new peer is issued with a writ of summons to attend the House of Lords.
You could still be a peer without sitting in the House of Lords, as many Catholic peers were. In fact, once you inherited a peerage you could not give it up. Any man who chose not to claim his place in the upper house would still be a peer, even if he did not use the title. As soon as he died, the title would pass to his heir in the normal way. There was no legal mechanism for declaiming a title until the mid-twentieth century.
Losing a title
There are a number of ways a noble family can lose the right to use a title.
If a peer is accused of treason then their title (and all rights and benefits that went with it) could be removed by Attainder. The title was returned to the Crown and could be given to someone else. This happened most often in earlier times when Lords had to decide who to support between multiple candidates for the crown. If you picked the wrong candidate, the winning monarch would remove your title, and often your head as well.
If a peer dies without issue, and they cannot trace an heir, but believe one may exist, then the title will fall Dormant, until such time as the heir makes an effort to claim it. Titles can also fall dormant if an heir tries to claim the title, but has insufficient evidence to prove his lineage.
However, if a peer dies without issue, and there are no possible heirs who can trace their family line back to the original holder of the title, then the title becomes Extinct. It is returned to the Crown, who may later choose to grant the same title to someone else, not necessarily connected with the original family.
One example of a title becoming extinct was following the death of the 2nd Earl of Powis, who died a bachelor in January 1801. Because his father was the original holder, and he had no brothers, the title became extinct upon the 2nd Earl's death. However, he did have a sister, who was married to Edward Clive, 2nd Baron Clive. In 1804 King George III made a new creation of the Earldom of Powis, and gave it to Edward Clive, who became the new 1st Earl of Powis.
Courtesy Titles
Courtesy titles are used by the eldest son of a duke, marquess or earl.
If a family holds more than one title, then a subsidiary title may be used as "courtesy title" by the eldest son; the heir apparent. The eldest son does not officially become a peer until his father's death, but he is allowed to use a secondary title as a courtesy. So in the case of the Duke of Devonshire, his eldest son uses the courtesy title Marquess of Hartington.
This rule only applies if the subsidiary title is different from the main title. In 1789 the Earl of Salisbury was made Marquess of Salisbury. If the Marquess had allowed his eldest son to use the courtesy title of his earldom, in the usual way, they would both be called Lord Salisbury - a most confusing situation! Instead, the eldest son uses the family's third title, which in their case would be Viscount Cranbourne.
If a family has three titles, the only person who can use the third title is the eldest son of the eldest son. So, using the Devonshires again as an example, if the Marquess of Hartington has a son during his father's lifetime, then the grandson of the duke is entitled to use the title Lord Cavendish, which comes from the duke's earlier title Baron Cavendish of Hardwick.
If a duke, marquess or earl has no second title, then his eldest son is allowed to use an invented title, which takes the form of "Lord...(family surname)". This only occurs in three or four cases within the whole peerage, as the vast majority of peers hold more than one title. One example of this is the Earl of Devon, whose family name is Courteney. His eldest son is styled Lord Courteney and given the nominal rank of Viscount because the Earl of Devon has no subsidiary titles.
Courtesy titles can only be used by the heirs apparent: the eldest living son of the existing holder, and the eldest son's son. If a peer has no sons, his heir presumptive could be a nephew or a cousin. However, nephews, cousins, or any other relations are not allowed to use courtesy titles, even if they are the next in line to inherit.
In the Scottish peerage, they used the same system as far down as viscounts. In the place of Barons, Scotland had Lords of Parliament. The heir to a Lord of Parliament uses the courtesy title Master, and is referred to as the "Master of ...(Title)". The title of Master (or Mistress for a female heir) can be used by both heirs apparent and heirs presumptive. If a family holds more than one title, the heir apparent will use his father's courtesy title in the normal way, if there is one, but if the heir is a brother or cousin of the titleholder he is able to use this alternative courtesy title.
The House of Lords
One of the main privileges of a Peer was their right to take a seat in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the Houses of Parliament.
In order to sit in the House of Lords, each new peer was summoned by the King. They then had to swear the Oath of Supremacy, which confirmed their allegiance to the King as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Head of State.
Once the oath had been taken, the peer would shake the hand of the Lord Chancellor, and then literally take their seat by sitting on one of the benches in the chamber, alongside other peers of the same rank.
Every peer whose title was part of the Peerage of England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom had one vote. Holding more than one peerage did not entitle you to more than one vote.
When Scotland, England and Wales became one country in 1707, the Scottish Parliament selected sixteen Representative Peers from all the Scottish peers that existed up to that time. Those chosen would represent Scottish interests in the House for the length of one parliament before new representative peers were selected for the next parliament. After 1707, any new Scottish peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords as they were Peers of Great Britain or later Peers of the United Kingdom.
When Ireland formed its union with Great Britain in 1800, the Irish peerage at the time chose 28 representative peers who would represent Irish interests in the House for their lifetime. When a representative peer died, a new one would be chosen by a vote of the Irish Peers. After 1800, any new Irish peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords as they were Peers of the United Kingdom.
If a Scottish or Irish peer was not chosen as a Representative Peer but was later granted a new title under the Peerage of Great Britain or the United Kingdom, they would be allowed to sit in the House of Lords by virtue of that new title.
Peeresses - women who held a title in their own right - were not allowed to sit in the House of Lords until the 1960s. Peers who were minors, (under 21 years old) lunatics or bankrupt were also excluded.
Among the peerage were a few families of the Roman Catholic faith, and these peers chose not to sit in the House of Lords, therefore avoiding the requirement to take what was then a particularly anti-Catholic oath.
The eldest son of a peer, using a courtesy title, would not normally be allowed to sit in the House, although it did happen rarely, by a special arrangement called a "Writ of acceleration". Between 1795 and 1820 eleven of these writs were issued, to call heirs of sitting peers to the House of Lords. They seemed particularly common among those who had an interest in politics, or who had already been sitting in the House of Commons.
Lord Hawkesbury, son and heir to the Earl of Liverpool, was one of those elevated to the House of Lords in 1803, in recognition of his work as Foreign Secretary. A few years after his father died he became Prime Minister as Lord Liverpool.
As well as being part of the government structure, the House of Lords also functioned as a law court. At the time it was not thought right that a jury composed of ordinary men should sit in judgement on a peer of the realm. Therefore, during the 19th century, any peer accused of a crime could have his case heard in the House of Lords, before all his fellow Lords. Wives of peers were also entitled to be judged in the same court.
Once all the evidence had been heard, each member would indicate whether they considered the defendant innocent or guilty. They would start at the bottom of the order of precedence, with the most recently created Baron, and work their way up the list until the holder of the oldest Dukedom had cast his 'vote'. The majority verdict would decide guilt or innocence.
If a peer was convicted of a capital offence, such as murder, they were entitled to be hanged by a rope made of silk, rather than the standard rough hemp used by everyone else.
Another privilege of being a peer was freedom from arrest in civil cases, such as debt. This made it very difficult for tradesmen to recover any outstanding money owed by peers.
Further information on the House of Lords is now available under the post: "The House of Lords"
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[Image: The House of Lords, by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) and Augustus Charles Pugin (1762-1832) Plate 52 of Microcosm of London (1809) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]
Edited to add information regarding Succession.
Edited to add details of Lord Byron taking his seat in the House of Lords.
Edited to add the quote from Lord William Pitt Lennox.
Edited to add details of Representative Peers from Scotland and Ireland.