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The Peerage

        Peers of the realm are people who hold the highest ranks in the British aristocracy. As a group, they are sometimes referred to as the peerage. There are two main types of peers: hereditary peers hold titles that are passed from one generation to the next, while life peers have a personal title which lasts for their own lifetime but is not passed on to their children.

        The peerage is divided into five main ranks. The most senior rank is that of duke (for a man) or duchess (for a woman), a hereditary title which was created in Norman times. There are five royal Dukes, including the Duke of Edinburgh, and 24 other dukes. The second most senior rank is that of marquess (man) or marchioness (woman), of which there are under 40. The third rank is that of earl (man) or countess (woman), of which there are nearly 200. This is the oldest title of all. Next in rank is a viscount (man) or viscountess (woman). The fifth and lowest rank of the peerage is that of baron (man) or baroness (woman), of which there are around 500 with hereditary titles. At present, about two thirds of all peers hold hereditary titles, many of which were originally given by the reigning king or queen to close friends or in return for some service. Senior titles often include the name of the place where the family comes from, e.g. the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquess of Normandy. A woman may be a duchess, marchioness, etc. in her own right or receive the title when she marries a duke, etc.

        Life peers include the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, usually referred to as Law Lords, who are the most senior judges in the land, the Lords Spiritual, who are the archbishops of Canterbury and York and 24 bishops of the Church of England and, since 1958, many other men and women who have been given a peerage in recognition of their public service. Most of these are given the rank of baron or baroness.

       There are complicated rules for how to address and refer to members of the peerage. Dukes, for instance, are addressed formally as 'Your Grace', marquesses and earls as 'My Lord', and viscounts and barons as 'Lord X '. There are also rules for addressing members of their families. Most British people know that such complicated forms of address exist but many would not be able to use them correctly, and would probably think that they are rather strange and old-fashioned.

        Peers cannot be elected to the House of Commons as Members of Parliament unless they have first disclaimed their title. Tony Benn campaigned for members of the peerage to have this right and was himself the first to give up his title and become an MP. Former members of the House of Commons who have been elevated to the peerage as a reward for their service are sometimes said to have been 'kicked upstairs'.

       At present, all hereditary and life peers may take part in the government of Britain by taking their seat in the House of Lords, though many do not attend regularly. There has for a long time been talk of changing this right, which many people consider undemocratic, and even of abolishing the House of Lords. At the end of 1997 there were about 650 hereditary peers compared with 500 life peers. About 500 of the total were Conservative peers, most of whom were hereditary. This means that the Labour government is heavily outnumbered in the Lords, which causes problems in getting new laws passed. In 1998 the Labour party announced that it would introduce laws to abolish the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, and also that it would create about 600 new life peers to take their place. It is not yet clear how they will be chosen.