Precedence concerns itself with such matters as the order in which people go in to dinner, leave the dinner table, march in procession (though here people usually move in reverse order of precedence, the least to the fore, the most important to the rear), are announced at gatherings or are listed in an official description of some ceremonial function. But there are various tables of precedence: social, official, political, local, ecclesiastical, legal, military.

The Dictum of Kenilworth of 1266 seems to contain the oldest official ruling on the subject. In 1399 there followed the Order of all Estates of Nobles and Gentry of England. For HENRY VI's coronation in 1429 the Constable of England, John Duke of Bedford (see BEDFORD, D, preliminary remarks), promulgated a similar decree called the Order of all States of Worship and Gentry of England. Similar instruments followed in 1466/7 and some time between 1487 and 1495. The most authoritative statement on precedence so far was the order for ‘the placynge of Lordes and Ladyes' called the ‘Precedence of Great Estates in their owne degres' of 1520. In 1539 the House of Lords Precedence Act was passed, settling the pecking order of the Great Officers of State and peers. Although HENRY VIII was thus the first sovereign to use Parliament to settle the matter, he declared he was merely confirming the law of precedence. He did, however, announce in the Bill's preamble that it was entirely within the royal prerogative to ‘give such honour, reputation, and placing to his Councillors and others his subjects as should be seeming to THE KING'S Most excellent wisdom'. Thus in 1532, when HENRY had made ANNE BOLEYN Marchioness of Pembroke in her own right, he had according to his own interpretation not been exceeding his powers in giving her precedence above every other marchioness.

A similar law of 1547 listed the dignity of archbishop and bishop below the titles of duke and baron respectively, whereas nowadays the two archbishops and all bishops of the Church of England rank above dukes and barons respectively. Whatever might be claimed in the 16th century, precedence is subject to custom as well as the royal prerogative, although it is occasionally clarified by royal ordinances. For instance, the positions in the local table of precedence of the Lord Lieutenant of the County and the High Sheriff are fixed by both usage and royal warrant. And there have been cases since HENRY VIII where an attempt by a sovereign to introduce modifications was resisted. The invention of baronets in JAMES I's reign, for instance, touched off a three-day dispute in the presence of the King between legal representatives of barons' and viscounts' younger sons on the one hand and of members of the new order on the other as to which group should take precedence. JAMES finally settled the matter in favour of the viscounts' and barons' younger sons in 1612. When QUEEN VICTORIA tried to procure the PRINCE CONSORT a higher precedence than the aristocracy thought suitable there was a peers' revolt led by the 1st Duke of Wellington (qv).

Precedence has its anomalies. In the case of hereditary titles it is only to be expected that children and even grandchildren of peers and baronets are given places in the tables of precedence. But children of persons given non-hereditary titles, such as knights, also qualify. Yet children of office-holders are ignored, even of the Archbishop of Canterbury, until he is made a peer, which in the case of the Archbishop usually happens when he retires, so that a child of the highest ranking non-royal personage in the realm is nowhere while his or her father is actually in office, but slips in at a high position once the father retires, just as the latter is re-entering the Table of Precedence at a much lower level.

Children derive their precedence from their father not their mother unless she is a peeress in her own right or one of the senior members of the Royal Family such as PRINCESS MARGARET or THE PRINCESS ROYAL. Women have their own table of precedence. The process whereby the constituent realms came to be knit in a whole is reflected in separate tables of precedence for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Because of the delicate situation in the latter province there is no discrimination in precedence terms favouring certain members of the Protestant hierarchy or an official connected with it in the way there is in England with the Church of England Bishops and north of the border with the Lord High Commissioner to sessions of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. At very high levels the two sexes mingle to a certain extent, so that a combined Table of Precedence is given here.

Precedence Introduction.
Precedence Part 1.
Precedence Part 2.
Precedence in England and Wales for Ladies.
Local Precedence.
Precedence in Scotland.
Precedence in Northern Ireland.