History UsefulNotes / KnightFever

* As of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', we get Keyblade Masters [[{{BigBad}} Xehanort]], [[{{MickeyMouse}} Mickey]], [[{{LightIsNotGood}} Eraqus]], [[{{ActionGirl}} Aqua]] and [[spoiler:[[{{TheLancer}} Riku]]]]. And also, at least in the Sleeping Worlds, there's [[spoiler:Royal Musketeer Sora]].

* Dame Edna Everage, who was given her damehood by the then Australian Prime Minister at the end of the second ''Barry [=McKenzie=]'' movie.

* A few lords feature as supporting characters in the works of Creator/DickFrancis (himself a CBE), perhaps unsurprisingly given the aristocracy's links with UsefulNotes/HorseRacing. Examples include Lord Gowrey in ''Enquiry'' and Lord Snow in ''Reflex'', both of whom are authority figures whose integrity gets somewhat compromised. The two Kit Fielding novels, ''Break In'' and ''Bolt'', also give us some foreign royalty in the form of Princess Casilia, whose horses Kit rides (quite which royal house she's a member of is unclear, but it concerns a country that has become a republic) in addition to Maynard Allardeck, whose attempts to get himself a knighthood are inadvertently derailed by Kit via evidence of some of Maynard's less savoury activities. In ''Guilty Not Guilty'' by Dick's son Felix, narrator Bill Russell is in fact The Honourable William Russell, younger son of the Earl of Wrexham (whose eighteenth-century ancestor secured that title by way of bribery).

* The Consort: A male sovereign's wife is by law a Queen Consort, and thus far has always been known as such. (There was some speculation that Charles III's wife Camilla might use the style "Princess Consort" or somesuch for a variety of reasons,[[note]]The main ones being deference to the King's widely beloved first wife Diana, Princess of Wales, and something about both her and the King being divorced and her ex-husband still being alive and Church tradition about divorce, etc.[[/note]] but when it came down to it in 2022 she assumed the title of Queen Consort with little fuss.[[note]]It helped here that a few months before her death, the widely beloved UsefulNotes/ElizabethII had expressly stated approval of Camilla's assumption of the title.[[/note]]). A female sovereign's husband does not share in his wife's rank, but instead is usually given whatever style the sovereign (or, more accurately, the government of the day) thinks appropriate:

** Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip was given the title Duke of Edinburgh a few ''hours'' before marrying the then-Princess Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. This was because Philip (who had been born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark) had renounced his Greek citizenship and his Greek and Danish royal titles as a condition of the marriage, and needed a title better than "Lieutenant Sir"[[note]]"Sir" because he had been made a Knight of the Garter the previous day, "Lieutenant" because that was his [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething earned rank]] in the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]][[/note]] to marry the heiress-presumptive to the throne. The conspicuous absence of "Prince" from his official titulary led to about 10 years of confusion about whether he should or should not be called "Prince Philip", leading to all kinds of weird proposals (most notably one from UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill--ever the Victorian nostalgic--to revive Prince Albert's title of "Prince Consort" and one from [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPrimeMinisters John Diefenbaker]][[note]]At the time the heir-presumptive to the leadership of the Canadian Tories. (The Tories were in Opposition until 1957, but as Louis St. Laurent was seen as losing his edge Diefenbaker was viewed as a likely future PM even then.)[[/note]] that he should be styled "Prince of the Commonwealth") before his wife settled the matter by making him a "Prince of the United Kingdom" (the style automatically granted to sons of the sovereign and of the heir apparent) in 1957.

** Historically, it was very rare for male commoners to marry female royals but those who did were given titles, such as Anthony Armstrong-Jones who became the Earl of Snowdon when he married Princess Margaret. This has since fallen into abeyance; Mark Philips was offered a title when he married Princess Anne but declined (although he was made a CVO the following year). There's no record of Timothy Laurence being offered a title when he became Princess Anne's second husband, although he was knighted (as a KCVO) in 2011, some nineteen years after the wedding. More recently, Jack Brooksbank and Eduardo Mapelli Mozzi were not offered peerages when they (respectively) married Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice [[note]] Mapelli Mozzi's father is an Italian nobleman, albeit one who holds both British and Italian citizenship and whose noble title of Count is no longer recognised in Italy, although he still uses it. Brooksbank, meanwhile, is the son of a younger son of a baronet; press speculation that he was going to be made an earl when he married Princess Eugenie turned out to be no more than, err, press speculation[[/note]], and as of 2022 neither of those two gentlemen has been inducted into the Royal Victorian Order.

First of all, you need to be alive. Honours, unlike gallantry medals, cannot be today given posthumously and any such nominations will be rejected. If you accept an honour but die before the formal announcement, the award will be backdated to before your death.

** In fact, being a prominent footballer will generally land you an MBE or an OBE for services to the game at some point. Longevity definitely helps, as representing your country many times is a sure way to honours -- examples include Pat Jennings OBE (119 caps for Northern Ireland), David Beckham OBE (115 England caps), etc. This, however, is also not a hard and fast rule: Wayne Rooney has made the most appearances for an England outfield player (125 caps, only behind Peter Shilton) has scored the most goals (53 goals, tied with Harry Kane) and he has no honour to his name.

* Literature/LordPeterWimsey is the second son of the 15th Duke of Denver [[note]] The village in Norfolk, not the city in Colorado[[/note]]. His brother is the 16th Duke of Denver, his brother's wife is the Duchess of Denver, their son is Viscount St George (a courtesy title), and his mother is the Dowager Duchess. Although he is addressed by his valet Bunter as "My Lord", Lord Peter is ''not'' a lord -- he has the courtesy title "Lord" because he is a younger son of a duke. His wife Harriet is Lady Peter Wimsey -- ''not'' "Lady Harriet" -- and their son Bredon is simply Bredon Wimsey. WordOfGod and the 2010 sequel ''The Atterbury Emeralds'' state that Lord St George joins the RAF in World War II and is killed on active service, and Lord Peter becomes the 17th Duke in 1951 after his brother dies [[spoiler:in the aftermath of a fire at Duke's Denver]]; Harriet becomes the Duchess of Denver and Bredon becomes Lord St George -- and will, assuming he outlives his father, become the 18th Duke.

Second of all, you need to decide whether you want a peerage or a knighthood so you know who you need to suck up to. If you want a life peerage your man (or woman) is the Prime Minister, who has the actual final say on non-royal peerages (in theory the PM merely "advises" the monarch, but he/she is expected to take his or her advice).[[note]]Given the continuing small but real political role of life peers, as well as peers' eligibility for many of the political-technical offices in Government, the reason for this is clear.[[/note]] Knighthoods are a different matter; the PM gives her a list, but she is permitted to strike out any name she wishes -- and add names, should she so desire. As long as you don't do something stupid, like cancel ''Series/DoctorWho'',[[note]]Seriously; BBC controller Michael Grade, who is widely assumed to have been behind its cancellation in 1989 (even though he hadn't been the BBC controller for a bit), casually happens to be the only BBC controller to not have been knighted.[[/note]] you should be fine. If someone nominates you for something first, that is! Deeds that will get you nominated for honours include:

First of all, you need to decide whether you want a peerage or a knighthood so you know who you need to suck up to. If you want a life peerage your man (or woman) is the Prime Minister, who has the actual final say on non-royal peerages (in theory the PM merely "advises" the monarch, but he/she is expected to take his or her advice).[[note]]Given the continuing small but real political role of life peers, as well as peers' eligibility for many of the political-technical offices in Government, the reason for this is clear.[[/note]] Knighthoods are a different matter; the PM gives her a list, but she is permitted to strike out any name she wishes -- and add names, should she so desire. As long as you don't do something stupid, like cancel ''Series/DoctorWho'',[[note]]Seriously; BBC controller Michael Grade, who is widely assumed to have been behind its cancellation in 1989 (even though he hadn't been the BBC controller for a bit), casually happens to be the only BBC controller to not have been knighted.[[/note]] you should be fine. If someone nominates you for something first, that is! Deeds that will get you nominated for honours include:

*** Success in UsefulNotes/HorseRacing is another route to honours.[[note]]Perhaps no surprise given the Royal Family's longstanding interest in all things equestrian and the royal stables' longstanding competitiveness on the track. Elizabeth II is known to have been particularly passionate about it, reading the ''Racing Post'' at breakfast every morning. Of course, horse racing ''is'' the "Sport of Kings". Just don't tell polo we said that. Or hunting. Or real tennis. Or, since Mike Tindall is Princess Anne's son-in-law, rugby.[[/note]] Long-standing Champion Jockey Tony [=McCoy=] was awarded an MBE in 2003 which was upgraded to an OBE in 2010 before he was knighted in 2016 (although as he was made a Knight Bachelor rather than a KBE, he's "Sir Tony [=McCoy=] OBE"). Similarly, Frankie Dettori has an honorary MBE (he being an Italian citizen), while trainer Jenny Pitman (the first woman to train a Grand National winner) has an OBE.

* A rare one, but being a namesake of an intended recipient is not unknown. Back in the 1970s, UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson wanted Harry H. Corbett (of ''Series/SteptoeAndSon'' fame) to have an OBE, quite possibly on account of the fact that he was a prominent Labour Party supporter to the point of him having appeared (as Harold Steptoe) in a Labour Party political broadcast [[note]] funnily enough, the ''Steptoe'' episode "Tea for Two" has Harold as the secretary of his local Labour Party branch, in contrast to his Tory-supporting father [[/note]]. Unfortunately, the middle "H" in his name was somehow lost in the process, and it was instead announced that Harry Corbett (of ''[[Series/TheSootyShow Sooty]]'' fame) was getting the OBE instead [[note]] this gets even funnier when you take into account that Harry H. Corbett had only added the initial "H", which he claimed stood for "hennyfink" (a Cockney pronunciation of "anything") when he was starting out as a stage actor in order to avoid confusion with Harry Corbett [[/note]]. In the event, though, both men were included in the 1976 New Year's Honours list.

* The Sovereign: currently a King, UsefulNotes/CharlesIII of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor. He is addressed as "Your Majesty" on first approach, "Sir" subsequently, and referred to as "His Majesty". A female sovereign would be a Queen and be referred to as Her Majesty (and Ma'am), of course.

*** Royal dukedoms should be distinguished from dukedoms created for illegitimate sons of monarchs (like the Dukedom of Grafton, created for one of UsefulNotes/CharlesII's bastards) or husbands of royal daughters (like the Dukedom of Fife, created for the Scottish nobleman who married Edward VII's eldest daughter, Princess Louise). Even though they are associated with the royal family, these titles are ''not'' royal dukedoms because their holders were not necessarily royals.
*** Complicating matters, the second holder of the Dukedom of Fife actually ''was'' royal, being the grandchild of Edward VII; making things even more complicated, she actually held the title as a ''duchess'', as the circumstances under which that particular title was created allowed for daughters to succeed their father to the title should their parents have no sons, which they didn't. Thus the 2d Duchess of Fife was a royal (and entitled to the style HRH) who held a dukedom but was not a royal duke (well, royal duchess). It gets even more complicated when you consider that this second duchess -- Princess Alexandra -- married Prince Arthur of Connaught, her first cousin once removed, who was also descended from Queen Victoria.

** Husbands of female Royal Highnesses simply keep their own names. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi did not get any new titles when he married Princess Beatrice in 2020. In the past, men marrying princesses have been given titles; for instance, Anthony Armstrong-Jones was made the Earl of Snowden when he married Princess Margaret. This was even true when the princess's suitor himself had a title, the most prominent example being when Alexander Duff, 6th Earl Fife, was made Duke of Fife in advance of his wedding to Princess Louise (eldest daughter of Edward VII, then Prince of Wales). But since Mark Phillips declined the offer of a peerage when he married Princess Anne, this has fallen into abeyance.

** Husbands of female Royal Highnesses simply keep their own names. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi did not get any new titles when he married Princess Beatrice in 2020. In the past, men marrying princesses have been given titles -- Anthony Armstrong-Jones was made the Earl of Snowden when he married Princess Margaret -- but since Mark Phillips declined the offer of a peerage when he married Princess Anne, this has fallen into abeyance.

*** Mary II was married to William of Orange, who had a weird position in the Dutch political system of the day. Officially, the Netherlands was a federation of seven republics, but unofficially each republic always elected the Prince of Orange[[note]]A rather strange principality that traced its name and ancestry to a line of minor but very rich nobles in the south of France--on the border between the old provinces of Provence and Dauphiné--whose junior line ended up based in the Netherlands and then inherited the old French title shortly before leading the rebellion that established the Dutch Republic.[[/note]] their ''Stadtholder'' (principal magistrate/military commander-in-chief) (usually anyway).[[note]]Some republics liked to play coy and pick someone else; William himself was never elected Statdholder in Groningen or Friesland.[[/note]] Super-unofficially, but most importantly, Holland (the most populous and economically dynamic republic) controlled everything and so whoever was ''Stadholder'' of Holland ran the whole circus. Surprise, surprise, William was ''Stadholder'' of five of the seven republics, including Holland. This meant William knew what it meant to be a constitutional head of state, which is exactly what Parliament wanted after the Glorious Revolution. Plus he was Protestant! (Admittedly a [[UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion Dutch Reformed one more like those weirdo Presbyterians up in Scotland than the sensible Episcopalian Anglicans who dominated Parliament]], but after that cursed Papist James II they'd take any Protestant they could get.) As a result, Parliament not only made him king, they let him stay king after Mary died (something denied to Philip) and would have let his heirs by any second wife inherit if he remarried (he never did, though, so the throne went to Mary's aforementioned sister Anne).

** A note on "prince" and "princess": Any person styled HRH from birth is also a prince or princess from birth. The wife of a prince is not technically a princess, but instead "shares" in his title (ie. Princess Michael of Kent; see below). The title "prince" or "princess" may also be granted by the Sovereign, theoretically to anyone, but in practice only to certain people with direct ties to the Royal Family. This was the case with Prince William's children, who are not the children or grandchildren of the monarch (they were the Queen's great-grandchildren); before Prince George was born, it was decided that William's children would be granted the right to be princes and princesses as they would -- as children of the eldest son of the eldest son -- be in the direct line of succession.

A few titles can pass to a male heir through the female line (ie. to a daughter's son or sororal nephew). In Scotland, many peerages are linked to clan chieftainships which can and do pass to a female if there are no suitable males. "Modern" hereditary titles that can pass through the female line or to an heiress are usually so because of the situation of the original grantee; ie. a man with only daughters who was elevated to the peerage would ask that his title be inheritable by or through a daughter. A good example is the dukedom of Marlborough which was created for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Churchill,_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough General John Churchill]] by Queen Anne in 1702. As Churchill had no sons, his eldest daughter Henrietta inherited the title, becoming the second Duchess of Marlborough. When she died, the title passed to her nephew Charles Spencer (the son of her sister, who had predeceased her) who became the third Duke. (Charles's grandson George would amend the surname to "Spencer-Churchill" in honour of the 1st Duke; most subsequent Churchills--including basically all the example Churchills on this page, including Sir Winston--descend from him and so are technically agnatic Spencers and not Churchills.) They did the same thing for Prince Philip's uncle [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Mountbatten,_1st_Earl_Mountbatten_of_Burma Louis "Dickie" Mountbatten]] (who had 2 daughters before his wife stopped sleeping with him, and everyone in Society knew it, largely because she was sleeping with half of Society[[note]]And possibly UsefulNotes/JawaharlalNehru, but that's another matter[[/note]] while he was sleeping with the other half) in establishing his earldom; this is why the "Earl Mountbatten of Burma" is named Knatchbull.\\

*** Two gold medals will get you an OBE and three a CBE (ie. Bradley Wiggins after Beijing in 2008).

*** Rounding off the sports part, it's worth nothing that winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award is not in and of itself a guarantee of honours, although whoever wins this has usually already done one of the things listed above in order to get this award ''in addition'' to an MBE or OBE. There are a few lower-profile SPOTY winners (ie. Greg Rusedski) whose achievements in their sport generally haven't been considered honour-worthy.

** These days, "be really nice and famous" seems to cut it, as evidenced by the national petition to give Music/ArianaGrande an honorary damehood in 2017. [[note]]She was nominated for her efforts to restore hope to Manchester after the bombing at her concert in the city, particularly pulling every string she knew to arrange the One Love Manchester benefit gig. She was reportedly offered a DBE but turned it down.[[/note]]

Once you have been given an honour, it is possible for it to be forfeited (ie. withdrawn). Reasons for this (according to the Cabinet Office's website) include "being found guilty of a criminal offence, behaviour which results in censure by a regulatory or a professional body, or any other behaviour that is deemed to bring the honours system into disrepute." There is in fact a Forfeiture Committee which considers such matters on a case-by-case basis -- it reports to the King via the Prime Minister, and if the former gives his approval, a notice of forfeiture will appear in the ''London Gazette'' (one of the British government's official journals of record).\\

* Be a renowned highbrow actor, author, musician, filmmaker or TV production person (like [[Creator/DerekJacobi Sir Derek Jacobi]], or more obviously [[Creator/LaurenceOlivier Sir Laurence Olivier, later Baron Olivier]]). If you're an actor who gets a knighthood or above, you don't use your new title when you're being credited in movies, at least not anymore -- although Judith Anderson was credited as "Dame Judith Anderson" in ''[[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock Star Trek III]], in more recent years Creator/BenKingsley has been roundly mocked for being credited as "Sir Ben Kingsley"..

Should no suitable heir for a title can be found, then the line is considered to be ended even if the family continues to live and thrive. Dead titles go back into the grab bag and might get dusted off after a few generations to be handed out to new recipients as entirely new creations rather than as continuations of the original lines. The earldom of Warwick, for example, is currently in its fourth creation.

* '''Earl (Countess)''': The title either comes from or is derived from the Old English equivalent (spelt "'''Eorl'''" in Old English) of the Norse "jarl", meaning "chieftain" or "ruler in stead of the King". The title of "eorl" as a standalone post[[note]]The Anglo-Saxons generally used "eorl" in the compound "''earldorman''", roughly meaning "great lord," which could refer to the lord of anything from a few villages to all of [[UsefulNotes/TheMidlands Mercia]]. It survives in the modern word "alderman", like what UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} calls the members of its City Council.[[/note]] was originally created by [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex Canute the Great]] of England and UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}} for the four regional governors he established for the four historic major regions of England (Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, and Wessex);[[note]]He would later break Kent off Wessex to make it five, largely because of the persistent service/meddling of Earl Godwin of Wessex[[/note]] he needed to do this to make sure someone was minding the store in England while he was off running Denmark (and Norway, which he also ruled) but didn’t want to leave all of England to one lord (who might try and make himself king). The title was thus the rough equivalent of "duke" until the Conquest of 1066.[[note]]Indeed, Old English texts like the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' generally referred to Continental dukes as "earls" even after the Conquest, including Duke William "the Conqueror" of Normandy himself.[[/note]] The Normans made it the equivalent of the Continental count,[[note]]Another ultimately Roman term; a ''comes'' ("friend" or "companion" of the Emperor) was a high-ranking official whose duties varied over the centuries; when first used as a title, they were military commanders with authority over an entire [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_diocese diocese]]--and therefore ''above'' a ''dux''. However, the title's Roman usage kept changing, fell out of use, and then was revived by the Franks, who used it for rather more local officials/nobles. The word passed through (Norman) French into English as ''comte'', from which "count".[[/note]] and probably chose the native Teutonic word over their own Romance one because of the aural similarity of "count" to a certain word for [[CountryMatters an undignified part of the body]] in the tongue of their new subjects,[[note]]The similarity of the English word for the female pudenda to innocent French vocabulary has been the subject of frequent commentary. [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples Even Shakespeare]] referenced it in ''Theatre/HenryV''.[[/note]] whence "countess" (which you have to admit is better than "earless") for the wife of an earl. There is one "royal earl", Elizabeth II's third son and youngest of child Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. (He's expected to be created Duke of Edinburgh with the queen’s death in 2022.[[note]]This is because, technically, Prince Charles was the Duke of Edinburgh, having inherited the title from his father when he passed in April 2021. Of course, since Charles was ''already'' a duke -- of Cornwall (outside Scotland) and of Rothesay (in Scotland) -- he didn’t really use the title, but as a legal matter the title was not available to be re-created for Prince Edward until Charles inherited the throne, at which point the title of Duke of Edinburgh was "merged in the Crown" and became available to be created anew. [[/note]])

A peer's eldest son uses his father's second title (if any) "by courtesy" during the father's lifetime. Thus, Prince Edward is the Duke of Edinburgh and his son James gets to be called Earl of Wessex as that is his father's second title. (Until 2023, Prince Edward was the Earl of Wessex and James was styled the Viscount Severn for the same reason.)[[note]]This one is a little confusing, as Prince Edward was given the title Duke of Edinburgh after Charles III became king because, technically, Charles had been Duke of Edinburgh from the passing of their father Prince Phillip in 2021 until Charles's succession in September 2022. Even more confusing, when Prince Edward eventually dies and James succeeds to his titles, he will succeed as Earl of Wessex but not as Duke of Edinburgh, as Charles gave Prince Edward his peerage for life rather than to his heirs male. So should James eventually have a son, he would be styled "Viscount Severn" until he succeeds rather than until his father succeeds.[[/note]] All dukes, marquesses and earls have at least one second title. Sometimes, the most senior second title is ''not'' used when it refers to the place mentioned in the senior title, in order to avoid confusion. For example, although the Duke of Westminster's second title is Marquess of Westminster, the duke's eldest son uses the title Earl Grosvenor -- or he would if he existed; the current duke, who inherited the title in 2016, is unmarried.\\

A peer's eldest son uses his father's second title (if any) "by courtesy" during the father's lifetime. Thus, Prince Edward is the Earl of Wessex and his son James gets to be called Viscount Severn as that is his father's second title. All dukes, marquesses and earls have at least one second title. Sometimes, the most senior second title is ''not'' used when it refers to the place mentioned in the senior title, in order to avoid confusion. For example, although the Duke of Westminster's second title is Marquess of Westminster, the duke's eldest son uses the title Earl Grosvenor -- or he would if he existed; the current duke, who inherited the title in 2016, is unmarried.\\

*** Mary II was married to William of Orange, who had a weird position in the Dutch political system of the day. Officially, the Netherlands was a federation of seven republics, but unofficially each republic always elected the Prince of Orange[[note]]A rather strange principality that traced its name and ancestry to a line of minor but very rich nobles in the south of France--on the border between the old provinces of Provence and Dauphiné--whose junior line ended up based in the Netherlands and then inherited the old French title shortly before leading the rebellion that established the Dutch Republic.[[/note]] their ''Stadtholder'' (principal magistrate/military commander-in-chief) (usually anyway).[[note]]Some republics liked to play coy and pick someone else; William himself was never elected Statdholder in Groningen or Friesland.[[/note]] Super-unofficially, but most importantly, Holland (the most populous and economically dynamic republic) controlled everything and so whoever was ''Stadholder'' of Holland ran the whole circus. Surprise, surprise, William was ''Stadholder'' of five of the seven republics, including Holland. This meant William knew what it meant to be a constitutional head of state, which is exactly what Parliament wanted after the Glorious Revolution. Plus he was Protestant! (Admittedly a Dutch Reformed one more like those weirdo Presbyterians up in Scotland than the sensible Episcopalian Anglicans who dominated Parliament, but after that cursed Papist James II they'd take any Protestant they could get.) As a result, Parliament not only made him king, they let him stay king after Mary died (something denied to Philip) and would have let his heirs by any second wife inherit if he remarried (he never did, though, so the throne went to Mary's aforementioned sister Anne).

A few titles can pass to a male heir through the female line (ie. to a daughter's son or sororal nephew). In Scotland, many peerages are linked to clan chieftainships which can and do pass to a female if there are no suitable males. "Modern" hereditary titles that can pass through the female line or to an heiress are usually so because of the situation of the original grantee; ie. a man with only daughters who was elevated to the peerage would ask that his title be inheritable by or through a daughter. A good example is the dukedom of Marlborough which was created for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Churchill,_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough General John Churchill]] by Queen Anne in 1702. As Churchill had no sons, his eldest daughter Henrietta inherited the title, becoming the second Duchess of Marlborough. When she died, the title passed to her nephew Charles Spencer (the son of her sister, who had predeceased her) who became the third Duke. (Charles's grandson George would amend the surname to "Spencer-Churchill" in honour of the 1st Duke; most subsequent Churchills--including basically all the example Churchills on this page, including Sir Winston--descend from him and so are technically agnatic Spencers and not Churchills.) They did the same thing for Prince Philip's uncle [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Mountbatten,_1st_Earl_Mountbatten_of_Burma Louis "Dickie" Mountbatten]] (who had 2 daughters before his wife stopped sleeping with him, and everyone in Society knew it, largely because she was sleeping with half of Society[[note]]And possibly UsefulNotes/JawaharlalNehru, but that's another matter[[/note]]) in establishing his earldom; this is why the "Earl Mountbatten of Burma" is named Knatchbull.\\

There are people who've accepted honours who decide to return them afterward as a form of protest against the Crown and/or the British government. Music/JohnLennon, for example, returned his MBE in 1969 in protest against "Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, our support of America in Vietnam and "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts" [[note]] that last was his second solo single, which peaked at number 14 in the British charts[[/note]]; funnily enough, at least five people are on record as having returned ''their'' honours (mostly given for military service) in protest against Music/TheBeatles being awarded [=MBEs=] in 1965. Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel Prize winner for Literature and composer of India’s national anthem, returned his knighthood in protest of UsefulNotes/TheRaj perpetrating the Jalianwalla Bagh massacre. More recently, Creator/MichaelSheen was made an OBE in 2009 but returned it in 2020 prior to calling for the title Prince of Wales to be scrapped (reasoning that it would be hypocritical of him to keep said honour while advocating said viewpoint).\\

** Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip was given the title Duke of Edinburgh a few ''hours'' before marrying the then-Princess Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. This was because Philip (who had been born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark) had renounced his Greek citizenship and his Greek and Danish royal titles as a condition of the marriage, and needed a title better than "Lieutenant Sir"[[note]]"Sir" because he had been made a Knight of the Garter the previous day, "Lieutenant" because that was his [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething earned rank]] in the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]][[/note]] to marry the heiress-presumptive to the throne. The conspicuous absence of "Prince" from his official titulary led to about 10 years of confusion about whether he should or should not be called "Prince Philip", leading to all kinds of weird proposals (most notably one from UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill--ever the Victorian nostalgic--to revive Prince Albert's title of "Prince Consort" and one from [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPrimeMinisters John Diefenbaker]][[note]]At the time the heir-presumptive to the leadership of the Opposition Canadian Tories[[/note]] that he should be styled "Prince of the Commonwealth") before his wife settled the matter by making him a "Prince of the United Kingdom" (the style automatically granted to sons of the sovereign and of the heir apparent) in 1957.

** Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip was given the title Duke of Edinburgh a few ''hours'' before marrying the then-Princess Elizabeth on 20 November 1947. This was because Philip (who had been born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark) had renounced his Greek citizenship and his Greek and Danish royal titles as a condition of the marriage, and needed a title better than "Lieutenant Sir"[[note]]"Sir" because he had been made a Knight of the Garter the previous day, "Lieutenant" because that was his [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething earned rank]] in the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]][[/note]] to marry the heiress-presumptive to the throne. The conspicuous absence of "Prince" from his official titulary led to about 10 years of confusion about whether he should or should not be called "Prince Philip", leading to all kinds of weird proposals (most notably one from UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill--ever the Victorian nostalgic--to revive Prince Albert's title of "Prince Consort" and one from [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPrimeMinisters John Diefenbaker]][[note]]At the time the heir-presumptive to the leadership of the Canadian Tories[[/note]] that he should be styled "Prince of the Commonwealth") before his wife settled the matter by making him a "Prince of the United Kingdom" (the style automatically granted to sons of the sovereign and of the heir apparent) in 1957.

** Baron/Baroness: Two of significance, one an "old" baron (the Crawleys' neighbour Richard Grey, Baron Merton, who makes Isobel Lady Merton) and one a "new" one (Rose [=MacClare=]'s father-in-law, Daniel Aldridge, Baron Sinderby, from a Jewish banking family).