peerage: (1) a type of title of honour; (2) a collective term for persons, called peers, who possess certain titles of honour; (3) a reference work listing persons holding one or more (1) make up (2). Where (1) is concerned, the reader should bear in mind that not all titles of honour are peerages (see for instance baronet and knight). Those that are comprise the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron in that order of descending relative seniority.

The term peerage derives from the Latin word for equal (par) and to the extent that all peers with seats in the House have tended to be summoned to it irrespective of their relative rank, importance or wealth, the term still has some relevance. But not every holder of a peerage (1) is summoned to the House of Lords. Minors are not, for instance, nor are Irish peers (for the complex reasons why in the latter case, see Charles Lysaght essay). Between 1707 and 1963 Scottish peers elected representatives from among themselves to sit in the House of Lords hence the term 'rep S peer' in individual family articles in the main body of this work. As this work was going to press it seemed likely that most holders of a hereditary peerage (1) would shortly cease to be allowed to sit and vote in the House of Lords.

The institution of a peerage (2) as a body of notional equals, sometimes even the equal of the King in the extent of land they held, existed in mainland Europe long before the development of the House of Lords offshore. Under CHARLEMAGNE in the 9th century and in Flanders and France some two or three centuries later bodies of great nobles existed to whom historians have given the name peerage (2). In Scotland an early form of national peerage (2) is said by some scholars to have existed in the shape of the mormaers (see BUCHAN). But the main ones in the British Isles have historically been those of (a) England, which existed from early times till the Union of English and Scottish Parliaments in 1707; (b) Scotland, which ditto, (c) Ireland, which existed from the Middle Ages for the most part till the Union of Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 but to which further additions were made afterwards (see Charles Lysaght essay); (d) (Great Britain, which existed from the above-mentioned Union of English and Scottish Parliaments till the 1801 Union, also above-mentioned; and (e) the United Kingdom, in which nearly every creation since 1801 has been made.

Someone possessing a title in the peerage (2) of England is not necessarily an Englishman by birth as opposed to a Scot, Irishman etc. Nor has he even necessarily always been English by birth as opposed to naturalisation. The same goes for the other national categories of peer. Piers de Gaveston, a Gascon, was created Earl of Cornwall in the peerage of England in 1308. The Duke of Schomberg, so created in the Irish peerage 1689, was born at Heidelberg of a German father and an English mother. He could have been created a Duke in the peerage of England, indeed was naturalised as an Englishman a few weeks before his ennoblement. The peerage of England comprises all peers created by sovereigns of England up to 1707.

From 1603 to 1707 sovereigns of England and sovereigns of Scotland were the same person, though the kingdoms themselves were still separate, and continued to create titles in the peerages of both kingdoms. The peerage of Scotland comprises all peers created by Kings or Queens of Scots up to 1707. Again, not all such grantees were necessarily Scottish. The Viscountcy of Falkland, for instance, now the oldest in the Scottish peerage (2), was originally conferred on an Englishman.

For a discussion of the principal examples of peerage (3), see the Introduction to the 106th Peerage & Baronetage.