What is the difference between a lord, a duke and a marquis?

Question

How are these titles obtained? I know you can sometimes buy a title, but aren't they usually given by a king or queen?

Answer 1

Merigold you have it wrong. There are two types of Dukes Royal Duke and just a Duke

A duke is address has His Grace

The eldest son of a Duke is called a Marquis

There are five ranks of the Peerage.

Duke

Marquis

Earl

Viscount

Baron

You can buy Scottish Barony. But they not really titles as such.

You can't sit in the house of Lords. A real title is by Royal letter patent. In today terms its mostly the Prime Minister who nominates someone to the House of Lords. These title are life peers meaning they die with them not pass on to sons etc.

Answer 2

A duke is a nobleman, historically of highest rank below the King or Queen, and usually controlling a duchy.

Today, an earl is a member of the British peerage and ranks below a Marquess and above a Viscount. Since there is no feminine form of Earl, the wife of an Earl bears the rank of Countess (the continental equivalent).

A marquess (British English spelling) or marquis (North American English and the original French spelling) is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European monarchies and some of their colonies. The term is also used to render equivalent oriental styles as in imperial China and Japan. In the British peerage it ranks below a duke and above an earl, on the continent usually equivalent where a cognate title exists.

Nobility is usually granted by Royalty

Answer 3

In Britain, titles are bestowed by the monarch (Queen Elizabeth ll at present) on the advice of the Prime Minister. Titles may be hereditary, or just for the lifetime of the peer. "lord" can be either a catch-all term for a nobleman, and/or it can be the actual title of a Baron or other of the lower orders of the peerage. e.g. Lord Smith, or other family name.

Answer 4

All members of the 'nobility'/aristocracy are 'Lord' or 'Lady', including children who will not inherit the title. Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England were also addressed as 'My Lord', in view of their Church 'rank' being equivalent to a noble (although, technically, only the Anglican Bishops with a seat in the Upper House of Parliament, 'the House of Lords' should be given that address).

Duke and Marquis/Marquess are the 1st and 2nd ranks in the 'Peerage' of the UK - and most countries where there is still an 'aristicracy' - below 'Royal' rank. Archdukes and Grand Dukes, only found on the Continent, not in the UK, were either 'Hignesses' or 'Royal/Imperial Highnesses', and considered Royalty, not Nobility. Archbishops are technically equal to Dukes and are also addressed as 'Your Grace', like a Duke.

UK titles are not available for sale, as such. There are old landholding rights with Feudal links that can be sold - but they don't actually make you an 'aristocrat', even if you might get the right to call yourself "Lord of the Manor of X". That only makes you 'lord' of the estate of 'X', not a Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess or Duke. An estate, in this sense, is not the same as the old political/Feudal entities that were baronies, counties, duchies, etc

The UK makes "LIfe Peers" still, who are Lord/Lady 'X' and are considered Barons/Baronesses or, if Scottish, "Lords/Ladies of Parliament". The title 'dies' with the Life Peer and their children do not receive it by inheritance, nor are they referred to as 'The Honourable', the way younger children of those in the ranks above Baron are.

In Europe there are very, very, few new hereditary titles created in the few countries with Monarchies remaining. They would not, however, be 'up for sale', either.