Does Canada, Australia, or New Zealand have resident "nobility".

Factual Questions
1

These three nations, along with many others, have a monarch as head of state. But do they have peerage as well? These nations share features of government that are tied to or closely parallel to the United Kingdom; a Parliament and Prime Minister, Governors General appointed by the British monarch (actually chosen by the elected government of course), “High Commissions” instead of “embassies”, and membership in the Commonwalth of Nations.

But I have never heard of an “Earl of Manitoba”, or a “Duke of Tasmania”.

2

That’s because we don’t have them.
We have quite a few ‘dames’ and ‘sirs’ who have apparently done something so great that they are given these titles by the state.
There may be a few Earls or Duke etc, knocking about the old colonies but they would have been born into their titles back in Britain.

3

Technically, the Queen could still confer titles on Canadian citizens, but it’s the policy of the Canadian government not to recommend the creation of any new titles. One of our newspaper magnates was so bound and determined to get a title that he acquired British citizenship a few years ago and then renounced his Canadian citizenship, all to become Lord Whoosit of Whooville in the U.K.

However, although no new titles are given to Canadian citizens, there’s nothing barring someone from inheriting a hereditary title.

I remember that when our Constitution was patriated 20 years ago, there was a report on some fellow from Alberta who was a British Lord. Sounded like the plot of one of those Victorian “lost heir” novels: His ancestor, the younger son of a nobleman, had come over in the 19th century, the male line back in Britain died out, so the Albertan inherited the title.

When the patriation bill was debated in the U.K. Parliament, he went over, took his seat in the Lords, and spoke in favour of the bill.

4

Actually, if I remember correctly, a few years ago a guy in Quebec declared himself King, and then gave nobility titles to some friends -i.e. dukes, barons and stuff like that…

I don’t remember the whole story but it was in the news…

5

Yes, me.

But the pay is crap.

6

To answer the question does NZ have resident nobility, the answer is YES we do, we in fact have two monarchies which live in conjunction with each other. Queen Elizabeth is technically Queen Elizabeth of New Zealand and the commonwealth, we are infact a separate realm to Britain and she can grant titles if she wishes, but has rearly happened, she is the only New Zealander who inherits a title within New Zealand, most noble titles are only a life title. Also New Zealand does not have a peerage system like Britain, we have only one ruling house and that is parliament, we use to have two but that was abolished in the 1950s. We then have a Maori King, who has no political power, but rather a cultural influence, the movement for the king is called the Kingitanga- which was created in the 1860s in retaliation to colonisation.However, the Maori king is King within the Kingitanga- which is recognised by only a few tribes but respected by mostly all

Pre-colonisation New Zealand already had a society, the tribes within New Zealand were basically like little Kingdoms, which were ruled or governed by the Maori Cheifs, then High Chief or otherwise known as Ariki/King which ruled supreme. There structures were as follow.

Ariki/paramount Chief/King -
Chief
PUHI , female princess or known by some as a sacred virgin, but this status was usually given to the eldest daughter of a chief, or selected by the chief. A PUHI was kept sacred and protected by the tribe.

Rangatira - nobility/ Aristocrats
Commoners - usually family members of Rangatira
Slaves - captured from other tribes, however they were treated with some degree of respect, it was not uncommon for slaves to marry commoners.

The only difference with Maori Nobility and European nobility is Maori aristocrats are un-titled which in British terms would make a Maori Family of high noble Maori birth commoners,eg a daughter of an Ariki/king would simply be Miss. In England, it’s the title that makes you Aristocratic, also you have to Remember that wealth does not make you a member of Nobility, you have to be born into it, whether the noble is poor or rich, they are still noble.The Maori King we do have is only king within his realm, which is narrower than Maori society itself. The Maori King ancestor was selected to be king because he could trace back to most tribes and there original vessels that landed in nz.

Within the tribe that hosts the Maori King movement is a family that’s actually more royal than the king himself and I do believe that’s the Wetere family, an Aristocratic Maori family similar to plantaginin family, the wetere’s have through there birth right enjoyed Royal privileges through much of the land that was handed down to them, most of this land , I am unsure if they still retain much of this land. There are also Royal families in Taranaki,NZ which unfortunately lost there lands during colonial era. So to answer your question, Yes New Zealand has resident nobility, and it is full of Ancestral Knights/ Warriors and Aristocrats and Royal families, except it did not have the wealth to sustain there status.

7

There’s nothing to stop the Canadian, Australian or NZ governments from advising the Queen to grant peerages to citizens of their countries but, as a matter of policy, none of them do, and it would be politically unthinkable.

Prior to the Statute of Westminster, the Imperial Government (in London) could advise the monarch to grant peerages to residents of Australia, Canada, etc, and it occasionally did. For example, in February 1918 the Australian politician Sir John Forrest was advised that he was to be raised to the peerage as Lord Forrest (though he died before the formal documentation was completed). This would have been a hereditary title.

Of course, none of these countries have or ever had anything like a House of Lords. Forrest, had his peerage gone through, would have been entitled to sit in the UK House of Lords (and in fact intended to do so at least once) but his peerage would have given him no corresponding right in Australia.

There are a few people living in Australia, etc who have inherited peerages originally granted to ancestors resident in England. (FWIW, there are a few such in the US too.) By and large, this gives them no particular social status in their countries of residence, and certainly brings no official recognition or privilege. So they’re not, in that sense, a local nobility.

8

There’s at least one resident hereditary peerage in South Africa: the Baron de Villiers of Wynberg (which is a suburb of Cape Town). Of course, as we are a republic now the title has no legal significance.

9

But I have never heard of an “Earl of Manitoba”, or a “Duke of Tasmania”.

Grand Duke of Avram?
The Grand Duchy of Avram is a micronation founded in the early 1980s by Tasmanian John Charlton Rudge…

10

Canadian Hereditary Peers Canadian peers and baronets - Wikipedia

11

I am told that having a title is very useful for getting a good table in a New York restaurant.

12

The other thing to note is that there has never been a specific peerage of Canada/NZ/Australia etc. There’s the peerage of the United Kingdom (which is what all modern peers in Britain are created into), the peerage of Great Britain (some of the peers from 1707-1801), and the peerages of England, Scotland and Ireland (the really old ones, mostly dating from pre-1707 or pre-1801, but some were created after these dates, too).

Therefore the peerage only ever applied to the British Isles. No doubt there were people from the Dominions who were made peers, but it didn’t count as a peer of where they were from.

On an interesting note, there are peerages based on American places - Lord De La Warr (i.e. Delaware), a peerage established in 1320, still sits in the House of Lords; and Lord Baltimore, which was an Irish peerage, which is now long extinct.

There’s a few living peers who live in the US right now: link

13

Although aristocracy in a Monarchy has a role of providing the Monarch with a social circle — mainly from the nobility; republics can equally have a titled aristocracy as well as a de facto one. Notably in mediaeval Italy

14

Also, apart from Conrad Black, who took British nationality as mentioned above — and the anti-monarchist Rupert Murdoch, who took American nationality — both for beneficial reasons; an earlier and equally awful press magnate was Aitken, who was made Baron Beaverbrook of Beaverbrook in New Brunswick, Canada, and Cherkley in Surrey, England.

I can’t find that he ever disclaimed Canadian nationality like Black, considering his love and use of Canada it seems impossible — he was an MP in Britain as a Liberal Unionist before his peerage, but anyone from the empire could be an MP: the qualifications were not stringent. His pal Bonar Law was British prime minister and he was Canadian.

15

How about, the Viscount Slim, of Yarralumla, Australia?

16

You might have mentioned that he recently spent a couple years guest of the US government in a prison in Florida and then was thrown out of the US. Since he is no longer a Canadian citizen, I guess he was deported to the UK. I believe he is Lord Black of Crossharbor or something like that.

17

Not even zombie peers have the power to do time before they are convicted. :wink:

18

I believe he is back in Canada. I’m not sure how or why, but he writes op-ed columns about Canadian matters for the National Post.

19

There are some other noble titles that have had an impact on the US. One interesting one is the title of Lord Fairfax of Cameron. This was, and is, a Scottish title, not a Virginian one. The places in Northern Virginia associated with those names were named after the title or one or more of its holders (e.g. Fairfax County, Cameron Run) or were named after other places that were thus named. The title wasn’t named thus because of the family’s prominence in Fairfax County. The Lord Fairfax was a Scottish noble who happened to own a lot of land in Northern Virginia, not a member of some homegrown Virginian nobility.

20

Fair trick naming a peerage for an area that wouldn’t be settled for 300 years, or given that name for closer to 500. (The naming is the other way around - Delaware is named for a Lord Delaware who was governor of Virginia.) Baron Baltimore, likewise, predates the city of Baltimore by 100 years, and the city was named for the Lord.