History UsefulNotes / KnightFever

** Despite the use of such as a trope in fiction, there have never been any created "native" titles of nobility given to British subjects in the American colonies before their independence. There have certainly been holders of various peerages with land holdings in the colonies,[[note]]Most famously Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who actually moved to his vast Northern Virginia estate in 1748 and never left even after the Revolution despite his Loyalist politics. He was a personal friend of UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington—again, despite the political differences—and is the namesake of Fairfax County, Virginia (one of the major suburban counties in the UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Metropolitan Area). Interestingly, he also had a connection to a major republican military leader of UsefulNotes/TheEnglishCivilWar through his namesake and predecessor in the title, his grandfather's cousin Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who had been the first commanding general of the New Model Army and a mentor to UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell.[[note]] but that is far different than an American-born person being given a title. A similar situation arose in Spanish Florida where royalty would give out royal land grants to settlers, and these grants were recognized by the U.S. when Florida became an American territory, but these did not come with a hereditary title. The closest true American peerage form to exist was a Patroon, a quasi-title given to land holders in the Netherlands colonies of modern day New York. The title came with a heridetary land grant and some jurisdictional authority but was more of a mayor-by-ownership than a true peerage. The last Patroons had their authority stripped by British governors after their takeover of the Dutch colonial holdings and later American authorities maintained that position. After law changes causing land reform strengthened the positions of tenant farmers, the last major Patroon holdings were sold or broken apart by the 1840s.

** Despite the use of such as a trope in fiction, there have never been any created "native" titles of nobility given to British subjects in the American colonies before their independence. There have certainly been holders of various peerages with land holdings in the colonies, but that is far different than an American-born person being given a title. A similar situation arose in Spanish Florida where royalty would give out royal land grants to settlers, and these grants were recognized by the U.S. when Florida became an American territory, but these did not come with a hereditary title. The closest true American peerage form to exist was a Patroon, a quasi-title given to land holders in the Netherlands colonies of modern day New York. The title came with a heridetary land grant and some jurisdictional authority but was more of a mayor-by-ownership than a true peerage. The last Patroons had their authority stripped by British governors after their takeover of the Dutch colonial holdings and later American authorities maintained that position. After law changes causing land reform strengthened the positions of tenant farmers, the last major Patroon holdings were sold or broken apart by the 1840s.

* OM -- Order of Merit (Can. Fr. ''Ordre du Mérite''): For outstanding lifetime achievement. Only 24 are allowed in at any time, and entirely in the Sovereign's personal gift--i.e. he can give it to whoever he likes withhout asking the Government. Florence Nightingale was made a member at the age of 87. All citizens of Commonwealth Realms are eligible. Despite not having a knightly title, membership in the Order of Merit is considered to be an ''extremely, ridiculously'' high honour on account of the fact that there can only be 24 members and that to even be considered you basically have to be the best in your field not only in the Commonwealth but the world. Practically everyone in the Order is either someone you've probably heard of at least once in your life, at least if you’re British (e.g. Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Sir Creator/DavidAttenborough, Sir Creator/TomStoppard, Norman Foster, Lord Foster of Thames Bank[[note]]The architect who did the Gherkin in Canary Wharf, among other things[[/note]] Sir [[TheInternet Tim Berners-Lee]], Basil Cardinal Hume[[note]]The Archbishop of Westminster—the highest ranking Roman Catholic prelate in England—from 1976 through 1999, and the most prominent and popular religious leader in Britain for most of that time, even among non-Catholics and even more so than the Archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Church of England). This was in part compensation for not being created a Life Peer; he was offered a peerage by the Government on multiple occasions practically from the moment he was installed as archbishop, but this came at a time when the Vatican was coming to the decision that Catholic prelates and diocesan priests should not hold public office (the official decision coming down in 1983). Hume therefore felt duty bound to decline a peerage, as the seat in the Lords was just enough of a public office to run afoul of the Vatican's new rules. The Government—under both Tory and Labour leadership, mind—and Her Majesty still wanted to honour him, and so he was given the OM.[[/note]] UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher,[[note]]With whom the Queen had had something of a testy relationship at times, but whom the Queen deeply respected both for her fierce personal qualities and her unquestionably transformational tenure as Prime Minister. Oh, and she won UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar. Good way to keep a monarch happy is to preserve the territorial integrity of her empire against foreign aggression.[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPrimeMinisters Jean Chrétien]], [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics John Howard]])[[note]]Please note that like Thatcher, Chrétien and Howard literally preserved the territorial integrity of the Crown's realms. Chrétien was instrumental in the defeat of the 1995 Quebec secession referendum, and Howard worked tirelessly to advance the ultimately-successful monarchist side in the 1999 Australian republic referendum. That'll get you serious brownie points with Her Majesty.[[/note]] or someone who did really amazing things in an obscure but important or interesting field (e.g. two recently deceased members, Sir Michael Atiyah, a Fields Medal-winning mathematician, and Sir Aaron Klug, a Nobel-winning biophysicist).

* OM -- Order of Merit (Can. Fr. ''Ordre du Mérite''): For outstanding lifetime achievement. Only 24 are allowed in at any time, and entirely in the Sovereign's personal gift--i.e. he can give it to whoever he likes withhout asking the Government. Florence Nightingale was made a member at the age of 87. All citizens of Commonwealth Realms are eligible. Despite not having a knightly title, membership in the Order of Merit is considered to be an ''extremely, ridiculously'' high honour on account of the fact that there can only be 24 members and that to even be considered you basically have to be the best in your field not only in the Commonwealth but the world. Practically everyone in the Order is either someone you've probably heard of at least once in your life (e.g. Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Sir Creator/DavidAttenborough, Sir Creator/TomStoppard, Norman Foster, Lord Foster of Thames Bank[[note]]The architect who did the Gherkin in Canary Wharf, among other things[[/note]] Sir [[TheInternet Tim Berners-Lee]], UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher,[[note]]With whom the Queen had had something of a testy relationship at times, but whom the Queen deeply respected both for her fierce personal qualities and her unquestionably transformational tenure as Prime Minister. Oh, and she won UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar. Good way to keep a monarch happy is to preserve the territorial integrity of her empire against foreign aggression.[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/CanadianPrimeMinisters Jean Chrétien]], [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics John Howard]])[[note]]Please note that like Thatcher, Chrétien and Howard literally preserved the territorial integrity of the Crown's realms. Chrétien was instrumental in the defeat of the 1995 Quebec secession referendum, and Howard worked tirelessly to advance the ultimately-successful monarchist side in the 1999 Australian republic referendum. That'll get you serious brownie points with Her Majesty.[[/note]] or someone who did really amazing things in an obscure but important or interesting field (e.g. two recently deceased members, Sir Michael Atiyah, a Fields Medal-winning mathematician, and Sir Aaron Klug, a Nobel-winning biophysicist).

* '''Knight Bachelor''' is for people who deserve to be knighted, but don't fit in the categories of who belongs in the orders. You can get a lesser Order of the British Empire honour, but still not qualify for a KBE, in which case you keep the lesser honour as well as your knighthood, as in Sir Alex Ferguson CBE and Sir Creator/TerryPratchett OBE. If you don't have any such letters, you can follow your name with "Kt". This is the oldest kind of knighthood in Britain; if you're thinking of the classic knight of TheHighMiddleAges with the armour and sword and horse and lance "[[MedievalEuropeanFantasy running around and killing things]]," his title was, essentially, Knight Bachelor.[[note]]It's a ''bit'' more complex than that, but--for once--not by much.[[/note]]

* All extant life peerages save one[[note]]The one being the aforementioned fourth creation of the dukedom of Edinburgh, being granted to Prince Edward for life only.[[/note]] are baronies. Life peers are known as "Lord/Lady Title-Name". Usually, the title name derives from their surname rather than a place, although the full title includes both. This is useful because you can have more than one lord with the same title name -- for example, there are currently several life peers with the surname Smith who are all "Lord Smith" or "Lady Smith", with the place name being added (Lord Smith of Finsbury, etc) if one needs to specify which one they are referring to. As they get to choose their title name when they are ennobled, some choose not to use their surname. Sometimes a particular surname may not be appropriate -- when a politician called Michael Lord was given a life peerage in 2011, he was told that he could not be "Lord Lord" so opted to be Lord Framlingham (after a town in the constituency he had formerly represented as an MP).

* All modern life peerages are baronies. Life peers are known as "Lord/Lady Title-Name". Usually, the title name derives from their surname rather than a place, although the full title includes both. This is useful because you can have more than one lord with the same title name -- for example, there are currently several life peers with the surname Smith who are all "Lord Smith" or "Lady Smith", with the place name being added (Lord Smith of Finsbury, etc) if one needs to specify which one they are referring to. As they get to choose their title name when they are ennobled, some choose not to use their surname. Sometimes a particular surname may not be appropriate -- when a politician called Michael Lord was given a life peerage in 2011, he was told that he could not be "Lord Lord" so opted to be Lord Framlingham (after a town in the constituency he had formerly represented as an MP).

* '''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]] largely because whilst the ranking of titles was not especially fixed at the time, dukes were understood to have certain quasi-sovereign prerogatives (like, er, the Duke of Normandy, whose near-royal powers and status were how Billy the Conk could get away with building up an army big enough to conquer England), while counts were not. They 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 was previously one "royal earl", Elizabeth II's third son and youngest child Prince Edward, who was known as the Earl of Wessex from his marriage until early 2023. He was expected to be created Duke of Edinburgh with the queen’s death in 2022, and sure enough he was created Duke of Edinburgh for life in early 2023.[[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]])

* '''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 was previously one "royal earl", Elizabeth II's third son and youngest child Prince Edward, who was known as the Earl of Wessex from his marriage until early 2023. He was expected to be created Duke of Edinburgh with the queen’s death in 2022, and sure enough he was created Duke of Edinburgh for life in early 2023.[[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]])

* The Spouses: Wives of male Royal Highnesses use a female version of their husband's style for the duration of the marriage (and afterwards, if widowed). The wife of HRH the Earl of Wessex is HRH the Countess of Wessex[[note]]The title "countess" is used as the female equivalent to both "count" and "earl", as a feminine form of the word "earl" in English never developed.[[/note]], while the wife of Prince Michael of Kent is referred to as Princess Michael of Kent. Her actual first name is Marie-Christine.

* The Spouses: Wives of male Royal Highnesses use a female version of their husband's style for the duration of the marriage (and afterwards, if widowed). The wife of HRH the Earl of Wessex is HRH the Countess of Wessex, while the wife of Prince Michael of Kent is referred to as Princess Michael of Kent. Her actual first name is Marie-Christine.

Some decline for political reasons. UsefulNotes/TELawrence was offered a knighthood by George V for his role in the Arab Revolt but refused due to his anger over the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Other examples include UsefulNotes/RamsayMacDonald and the historian A.J.P. Taylor, both of whom saw knighthoods as being incompatible with their left-leaning political views; the latter remarked that: "The Establishment draws its recruits from outside as soon as they are ready to conform to its standards and become respectable. There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment – and nothing so corrupting."

There are people who accept honours but later 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 the poems on which the national anthems of India and Bangladesh are based, 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).\\

In the latter category we have Creator/RoaldDahl, who was offered an OBE in 1986 but is said to have turned it down because he wanted a knighthood, so that his wife could be Lady Dahl.\\

There are people who accept honours but later 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 the poems on which the national anthems of India and Bangladesh are based, 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).\\

In 2024, the Post Office scandal, which had been rumbling on for years, became a major news story following the broadcast of the TV drama ''Series/MrBatesVSThePostOffice''. After this was broadcast, an online petition was set up to try and get former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells stripped of the CBE she was awarded in 2019. It quickly got a million signatures and she bowed to public pressure, announcing that she would be returning the honour.\\

A lord who has been stripped of his title is said to have been attainted. Historically, this happened after said individual was convicted of treason and entailed him not only being stripped of his title but also his property, in addition to losing the right to pass his title to his heirs. And then he'd be executed. This happened quite a few times during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses, the reign of UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, the [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar Civil War]] and the [[UsefulNotes/HanoverStuartWars Jacobite Rebellions]]. Technically, a peer can still be stripped of his or her title only by an Act of Parliament, but this has not been done since 1820 -- the closest thing since has been the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917 which deprived various German princes and noblemen of their British titles during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. It's reckoned that the only reason why Creator/JeffreyArcher was ''not'' stripped of his peerage after his conviction for perjury in 2001 was because the government of the day did not want to go through the rigmarole of passing an Act of Parliament for that sole purpose. The same goes for Conrad Black following his conviction for fraud in the USA in 2007. In 2014, the House of Lords Reform Act was passed, which allows peers to retire or resign (something that had previously been constitutionally impossible for life peers); additionally, it allows for peers to be excluded if they are convicted of a serious criminal offence (defined as one that comes with a prison sentence of at least a year) or if they fail to attend the House for an entire legislative session. Since this came into force, 174 peers have resigned or retired, and 10 have been excluded for non-attendance. The criminal conviction bit is not retrospective.

* Save the lives of many people who would otherwise be killed by a genocidal regime. Nicholas Winton, a stockbroker who worked to get 669 (mostly Jewish) children out of Czechoslovakia in the run-up to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (thus saving them from the Holocaust), was later knighted for this. That said, he [[HumbleHero kept quiet about what he had done]] for many years; his work only came to public attention in 1988 when he was reunited with many of the (by then grown-up) children he had rescued) on the TV show ''That's Life!''. Having been hailed as Britain 's answer to [[Film/SchindlersList Oskar Schindler]], he was knighted in 2003. The movie ''Film/OneLife'' tells his story.

People can and do refuse on matters of principle. For instance, republicans may refuse all honours because they don't believe in the continuation of the monarchy and its institutions. People have also refused orders that they believe to have troubled, discriminatory histories (the very fact that the Order of the British Empire is still called that is reason enough, for some). And there are those who refuse to accept an honour because they feel that the one on offer is beneath them and are holding out in the hopes of receiving something more substantial in the future.\\

In 2024, the Post Office scandal, which had been rumbling on for years, became a major news story following the broadcast of the TV drama ''Series/MrBatesVSThePostOffice''. After this was broadcast, an online petition calling for former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to be stripped of the CBE she was awarded in 2019. It quickly got a million signatures and she bowed to public pressure, announcing that she would be returning the honour.\\

A lord who has been stripped of his title is said to have been attainted. Historically, this happened after said individual was convicted of treason and entailed him not only being stripped of his title but also his property, in addition to losing the right to pass his title to his heirs. And then he'd be executed. This happened quite a few times during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses, the reign of UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, the [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar Civil War]] and the [[UsefulNotes/HanoverStuartWars Jacobite Rebellions]]. Technically, a peer can still be stripped of his or her title only by an Act of Parliament, but this has not been done since 1820 -- the closest thing since has been the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917 which deprived various German princes and noblemen of their British titles during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. It's reckoned that the only reason why Creator/JeffreyArcher was ''not'' stripped of his peerage after his conviction for perjury in 2001 was because the government of the day did not want to go through the rigmarole of passing an Act of Parliament for that sole purpose.\\

* Save the lives of many people who would otherwise be killed by a genocidal regime. Nicholas Winton, a stockbroker who worked to get 669 (mostly Jewish) children out of Czechoslovakia in the run-up to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (thus saving them from the Holocaust), was later knighted for this. That said, he [[HumbleHero kept quiet about what he had done]] for many years; his work only came to public attention in 1988 when he was reunited with many of the (by then grown-up) children he had rescued) on the TV show ''That's Life!''. Having been hailed as Britain 's answer to [[Film/SchindlersList Oskar Schindler]], he was knighted in 2003.

In 2024, the Post Office scandal, which had been rumbling on for years, became a major news story following the broadcast of the TV drama ''Mr Bates vs the Post Office''. After this was broadcast, an online petition calling for former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to be stripped of the CBE she was awarded in 2019. It quickly got a million signatures and she bowed to public pressure, announcing that she would be returning the honour.\\

Foreigners can get these titles also, but, cruelly, they generally can't call themselves "Sir" or "Dame". Bono of Music/{{U2}} is an example, as is Creator/KevinSpacey [[note]] Who has not been stripped of his KBE because he has, as of April 2021, not yet been convicted of any criminal offences relating to the sexual misconduct allegations [[/note]], while some countries specifically prohibit their citizens from accepting foreign titles of nobility.

!!Rejecting honours

Many refuse on matters of principle. For instance, republicans may blanket refuse all honours because they don't believe in the continuation of the monarchy and its institutions. People have also refused entry into orders that they believe to have troubled, discriminatory histories. And there are those who refuse to accept an honour because they feel that the one on offer is beneath them and are holding out in the hopes of receiving something more substantial in the future.\\

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 the poems on which the national anthems of India and Bangladesh are based, 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).\\

Once you have been given an honour, it is possible for it to be forfeited (i.e. 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).\\

** The country has long eschewed knightly titles. Becaseu of this, the highest grade within the domestic Canadian honours system is that of Companion of the Order of Canada (CC). (The Order—more or less explicitly modeled on the Order of the British Empire—also has lower grades of Officer (OC) and Member (MC)). There are occasional discussions of adding two higher grades that would be equal to Knight Commander and Knight Grand Cross without using the actual terminology, but no real attempt has been made to do so.

* Among the Commonwealth Realms, Canada occupies a unique position inasmuch as it has long eschewed even knightly titles -- with some complications. Although the Nickle Resolution of 1917 implies that Canadians are not allowed to ''accept'' a foreign honour that has not been approved by the Prime Minister (with the exception of the Order of Merit), no Canadian citizen has ever been prevented from ''inheriting'' a Commonwealth peerage granted to an ancestor. This is why publisher Conrad Black had to renounce his Canadian citizenship before being granted a life peerage, but Winnipeg Jets owner David Thomson[[note]]Also chairman of wire service Reuters, and -- important for American lawyers -- of the West publishing group[[/note]] is still a Canadian citizen -- he inherited his title (he's the third Baron Thomson of Fleet).
** Because of the eschewal of knightly titles, the highest grade within the domestic Canadian honours system is that of Companion of the Order of Canada (CC). (The Order—more or less explicitly modeled on the Order of the British Empire—also has lower grades of Officer (OC) and Member (MC)). There are occasional discussions of adding two higher grades that would be equal to Knight Commander and Knight Grand Cross without using the actual terminology, but no real attempt has been made to do so.
** Speaking of Canada, the only old Quebec (as in, French colonial) title still in existence is the Barony of Longueuil, which (curiously enough) is currently held by a Scotsman who is a second cousin once removed of Elizabeth II (on her mother's side).

** Most recently, UsefulNotes/RishiSunak had UsefulNotes/DavidCameron created a Life Peer to serve as Foreign Secretary after being forced to kick Suella Braverman from her post as Home Secretary and slide James Cleverly from the Foreign to the Home Office. This raised some eyebrows, but mostly because it was so weird for Sunak to be turning to a former Prime Minister to staff his Cabinet and that he would specifically ask Cameron (who was seen as having made a dog’s breakfast of Brexit and was associated with an embarrassing lobbying scandal).

** As of October 2022, none of the seven living former Prime Ministers have been given a life peerage and just two have been knighted -- UsefulNotes/JohnMajor and UsefulNotes/TonyBlair are [=KGs=]. It's unclear if the offer of a life peerage still stands, since no formal decision has been taken to stop offering peerages to retired ex-[=PMs=]. The last one to be offered one was Major after he stepped down as an MP in 2001; he declined. Of the others, three (UsefulNotes/TheresaMay, UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson, Liz Truss) are still [=MPs=]. Tony Blair and UsefulNotes/DavidCameron both stepped down as [=MPs=] upon leaving office, while UsefulNotes/GordonBrown remained in the Commons as a backbencher before stepping down in 2015. Blair was knighted in 2022, some 17 years after Major; for several years, the lack of honours for Blair and his successor Gordon Brown were attributed to the fact that both the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle have limited numbers (24 for the former, 16 for the latter), although in actual fact there were (and still are) vacant spaces in both of those orders. Should Brown get knighted, he -- being Scottish -- would get a KT rather than a KG.

* Convince the government that you'd make a really, really good minister but nobody would ever vote for you. The rule is that a Cabinet minister must sit in ''Parliament'' but need not necessarily sit in the ''Commons''. Nowadays it would be unthinkable for any of the really powerful ministries to be headed by a lord, but it's still quite common for a successful businessman to be ennobled as a life peer so he or she can serve as Minister for Trade or some similar position.

*** [[UsefulNotes/MaryTudor Mary I of England]] -- that is, Bloody Mary -- was married to King UsefulNotes/PhilipII of Spain.[[note]]Technically, when she took the throne in 1553, he was Philip, Prince of Asturias, his father [[UsefulNotes/CharlesV Charles I and V]] of Spain and the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire still being in full control of his realms. However, Charles [[AbdicateTheThrone abdicated]] in 1556, so from then until Mary's death in 1558 England and Spain were technically in personal union in Philip.[[/note]] During her reign, all official documents refer to Philip as the King of England and he was generally treated as the proper king while his wife was alive. However, he is [[RetCon usually left off the official list]] because he never had any children with Mary, because he left England after her death, and because (30 years after he left) he [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 ... tried and failed to invade England]]. That'll do it.

** 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) and had scored the most goals until that record was surpassed by Harry Kane) but he has no honour to his name.

** Earl/Countess: Lord Grantham, of course. Also of note, Lady Mary's second husband, Henry Talbot, while not himself a Peer, is nominally in (distant) remainder[[note]]Per Lady Shackleton, "forty strong men" would have to die for him to take the title[[/note]] to the real-life oldest surviving earldom in England, the Earldom of Shrewsbury (whose holders do actually carry the surname "Talbot").

These have existed since the passing of the Life Peerages Act of 1958. A life peer is an appointed member of the peerage whose title cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Since 1958, the vast majority of new peerages that have been created have been these.

* All sorts of services to the Prime Minister may count, given the various reasons for people being included in the Resignation Honours[[note]]honours granted at the behest of an outgoing PM following their resignation, which usually include peerages in addition to lesser honours, to be conferred on any number of people of the outgoing PM's choosing [[/note]] over the years. Denouncing honours thus awarded as examples of cronyism is nothing new; expect the likes of UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge and UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson -- or, more recently, UsefulNotes/LizTruss[[note]]who put forward a Resignation Honours list despite serving a grand total of 50 days in office. A number of people on the list declined [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame out of embarrassment]][[/note]] -- to be mentioned in comparison with more recent examples. Somewhat related to this is the case of UsefulNotes/DavidCameron's barber, Raffaele Claudio Carbosiero, who received an MBE in 2014 for "services to hairdressing".

* All sorts of services to the Prime Minister may count, given the various reasons for people being included in the Resignation Honours [[note]] honours granted at the behest of an outgoing PM following their resignation, which usually include peerages in addition to lesser honours, to be conferred on any number of people of the outgoing PM's choosing [[/note]] over the years. Denouncing honours thus awarded as examples of cronyism is nothing new; expect the likes of UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge and UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson to be mentioned in comparison with more recent examples. Somewhat related to this is the case of UsefulNotes/DavidCameron's barber, Raffaele Claudio Carbosiero, who received an MBE in 2014 for "services to hairdressing".

*** [[UsefulNotes/MaryTudor Mary I of England]] -- that is, Bloody Mary -- was married to King UsefulNotes/PhilipII of Spain.[[note]]Technically, when she took the throne in 1553, he was Philip, Prince of Asturias, his father Charles I and V of Spain and the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire still being in full control of his realms. However, Charles [[AbdicateTheThrone abdicated]] in 1556, so from then until Mary's death in 1558 England and Spain were technically in personal union in Philip.[[/note]] During her reign, all official documents refer to Philip as the King of England and he was generally treated as the proper king while his wife was alive. However, he is [[RetCon usually left off the official list]] because he never had any children with Mary, because he left England after her death, and because (30 years after he left) he [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 ... tried and failed to invade England]]. That'll do it.

* 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"..

* All sorts of services to the Prime Minister may count, given the various reasons for people being included in the Resignation Honours [[note]] honours granted at the behest of an outgoingPM following their resignation, which usually include peerages in addition to lesser honours, t be conferred on any number of people of the outgoing PM's choosing [[/note]] over the years. Denouncing honours thus awarded as examples of cronyism is nothing new; expect the likes of UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge and UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson to be mentioned in comparison with more recent examples. Somewhat related to this is the case of UsefulNotes/DavidCameron's barber, Raffaele Claudio Carbosiero, received an MBE in 2014 for "services to hairdressing".