Hereditary peers

Hereditary peers are members of the aristocracy who have hereditary titles confirmed to them by the Crown which may pass to their descendants. In Great Britain these are usually (but not always) male only, and the eldest son only receives his father's title. This was largely replicated across Europe, and in most countries which were once in the Holy Roman Empire. The exceptions were the Slav countries, notably those which fell under the sway of the Russian Empire. Here, very often all the children of the title holder inherited it thus creating a growing veritable army of very minor aristocracy effectively making the title utterly meaningless.

Invariably aristocrats with hereditary titles owned considerable landed estates.

In Great Britain all hereditary peers had the right to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster, Britain's upper house of parliament (Baronets, the lowest rank of hereditary title, did not have this right). In 1999, the House of Lords Act abolished the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. Out of about 750 hereditary peers, only 92 may now sit in the House of Lords, elected by their fellow peers. In Scotland minor barons, who possessed feudal baronies by tenure, were also entitled to sit in the Scottish Parliament which was abolished in 1707.

In France the hereditary peers sat in the Chamber of Peers, the upper house of the French parliament. It was recreated in 1814 following the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic periods, and survived to 1848 when it (and the monarchy) was abolished during the left-wing revolutions of that year and the restitution of the Republic.

Austrian titled nobility came from the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. The nobility system of the German Empire was similar to the Austrian Empire; both developed during the Holy Roman Empire and both ended in 1919 when they were abolished by the socialist republicans, and legal status and privileges were revoked. Despite this nobility status remained important and people were still addressed by and deferred to by their titles. The use of "von" in a family name indicates they were on the nobility register although not necessarily titled. It was common until recently to see Freiherr (Baron) or Graf (Count) before a person's surname. i.e: In the second half of the 1930s Ernst Heinrich, Freiherr von Weizsäcker, was Secretary of State in the German Foreign Office. Numerous other aristocrats from several countries were in diplomatic service where they used their hereditary titles.

Sources

• Round, J. Horace, Peerage and Pedigree, 2 volumes, London, 1910.
• Cockayne, George Edward, (G.E.C.), various editors, The Complete Peerage, 14 volumes, London, 1910-1940.
• Ruvigny, The Marquis de, The Titled Nobility of Europe, London, 1914 & 1980.
• Kennedy, John, managing-editor,Almanach de Gotha (Established 1763), 185th edition, London, 2001. ISBN: 0-9532142-3-0