How do British royal titles work?

In this episode of BrainStuff, Marshall Brain gives a detailed explanation of how British royal titles work.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff marks dot com where
smart happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question, who
are the Duke of York, the Duke of Kent and
so on? And how did they get their titles? The

(00:22):
British Royal family is like other families, made up of spouses, children, grandchildren, grandparents, uncle's,
aunts and cousins. The head of the British Royal family
is Queen Elizabeth Too, and she is the one who
decides who are bona fide members of the family and
what titles they will carry. To answer your question, a

(00:43):
duke is the highest rank you can achieve without being
a king or a prince. Historically, a duke is a
high ranking nobleman, landowner or a prince, and in feudal
times was the lord over some part of the country.
Today the titles are largely embolic, and there are twenty
eight dukedoms. Some people, like Prince Charles, have several dukedoms,

(01:06):
and some dukedoms are currently unassigned. When a duke who
does not have an air dies, the title returns back
to the royal family to be given out to someone new.
Not everyone who carries the title duke or Earl is
a member of today's royal family. Britain has a system
of peerage which ranks members of the nobility and aristocracy.

(01:29):
Many titles of nobility were one many years ago through
great wealth, favors to the king or good deeds, and
they're passed on from one generation to the next. This
is known as the inherited peerage. For example, Earl Spencer,
the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is
the ninth man in his family to carry that title.

(01:53):
Before he came Earl of Spencer. Note that the practices
to drop the of upon the death of his father,
he was known as Charles Spencer or as Viscount Althorpe,
a title his son Lewis now carries. Other noble titles
are given on merit or on special occasions. The life

(02:14):
peerage are titles that the monarch confers on exceptional people
during their lifetimes, and those titles do not pass to
children or descendants. Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Britain,
is now Baroness Thatcher. The British Prime Minister, consults with
the Queen about who is deserving of a life peerage

(02:34):
and several people are elevated to the peerage every year.
Life peers get a seat in the House of Lords,
but a law passed in limits the right of hereditary
peers to have a seat. The order of the titles
in British isles nobility from highest the lowest are first
of all, the duke and duchess title. The name is

(02:57):
derived from the Latin ducks, which means lead. Most dukedoms
carry a place name, although that means little to the
modern titles because the holders are not the sovereigns of
that land area. The title marquis appeared in England with
the Norman conquest and was given to nobles who were
in charge of border areas. The name is related to

(03:18):
older words for the frontier. The title earl comes from
a Norse word which meant leader. It's equivalent to account
in European nobility. The term viscount comes from the Latin
word for companion, and was sort of an assistant nobleman
in the old days. Baron is the lowest rank of
nobility and came to England with the Norman's Also, and

(03:41):
the word is derived from the Norman word for a freeman.
If you have a life peerage. This is the highest
title you can carry. Below these are the lower nobility,
who carry the titles baronet. This title is granted to
members of the upper classes, referred to as the gentle.
The story is that King James the First created the

(04:03):
title to raise money. Then there's a knight. In medieval times,
knights were the soldiers of the king or of princes.
Now the queen grants knighthood to her subjects who have
achieved great success in their professions. Paul McCartney, the former
Beatle has been knighted, for example. The female equivalent is
dom or Dame Esquire in medieval times, and Esquire was

(04:28):
a candidate for knighthood. Nowadays, it's applied to members of
the gentry, just below the knights. The queen bestowed titles
on her sons at their marriages and gave her daughter
a special title. She has several titles that are hers
to do with as she wishes. If an inherited peer
dies without an error, the title becomes the crown's property. Again.

(04:51):
Some titles that the queen's son's hold are part of
the Scottish or Irish peerage. The prince's titles can be
inherited by their sons. Be sure to check out our
new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how staff
Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing
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(05:15):
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