# Can I buy a British title? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 3, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903 "2011-12-03T00:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/1 "2011-12-03T00:13:06Z")
History is full of a noble selling their title. For example, Juan Carlos II is the Byzantium Emperor because the title in pretence was sold to the then Spanish king. Do British peerages work the same way? For example, could Peregrine Cavendish sell me his title and thereafter I would legally be Cad, Duke of Devonshire? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/2 "2011-12-03T02:58:11Z")
No. A British title is an entailed ‘property’ (in the sense that a college degree, the Keys to the City, etc., are ‘property’) and cannot be alienate by sale or gift by its holder. If he divests himself of it, or tries to, it passes to the next heir in line. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/3 "2011-12-03T03:08:29Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Do British peerages work the same way? For example, could Peregrine Cavendish sell me his title and thereafter I would legally be Cad, Duke of Devonshire? No. Hereditary peerages can only be disclaimed in limited circumstances (after a year has elapsed from succession or from the peer’s 21st birthday, it’s impossible), and they can’t pass to anyone else in that process (the peerage exists without a holder until the death of the person who disclaimed it, at which point it goes on as if nothing had ever happened). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/4 "2011-12-03T03:24:31Z")
Theoretically no as the above posters have said. Practically, Titles were given for a multitude of reasons and patronage and bribery\* were and remain two of them, though not the only or most common. - I use bribery in it broadest sense, including to obtain favour and influence. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/5 "2011-12-03T03:57:12Z")
[http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/faqs/knighthood-honours/buy-british-title](http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/faqs/knighthood-honours/buy-british-title) > [@](#): > > Can I buy a British title? > > No. The sale of British titles is prohibited by the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act, 1925. > > However, misleading advertisements for lordships of manors sometimes appear in the press and on the internet. A manorial lordship is not an aristocratic title, but a semi-extinct form of landed property. Lordship in this sense is a synonym for ownership. According to John Martin Robinson, Maltravers Herald Extraordinary and co-author of The Oxford Guide to Heraldry, ”Lordship of this or that manor is no more a title than Landlord of The Dog and Duck.” It cannot be stated on a passport, and does not entitle the owner to a coat of arms. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/6 "2011-12-03T04:48:36Z")
[The Straight Dope has already addressed this. Just out of curiosity, do people not read it, or do they read but it just slips their mind?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3003/can-i-become-a-scottish-laird-for-30) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/7 "2011-12-03T05:14:43Z")
I think that most people on the board now don’t actually read the column. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/8 "2011-12-03T05:21:11Z")
[quote=“Polycarp, post:2, topic:604903”] No. A British title is an entailed ‘property’…/QUOTE] Does that mean one has to come out of a particular vagina to be entitled to that property? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/9 "2011-12-03T05:32:58Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > Does that mean one has to come out of a particular vagina to be entitled to that property? The “tail” you are thinking of is a Germanic noun, coming into English from Old Norse. The “tail” in “entailed” is a Romance adjective, most often used in the phrase “fee tail”, coming into English from Anglo-Norman French. Same spelling, quite different meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/10 "2011-12-03T05:37:31Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > The “tail” you are thinking of is a Germanic noun, coming into English from Old Norse. The “tail” in “entailed” is a Romance adjective, most often used in the phrase “fee tail”, coming into English from Anglo-Norman French. Same spelling, quite different meaning. Whatever you said… All humans who resort to royal claims for superiority are the scum trash of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/11 "2011-12-03T05:42:12Z")
Maybe, but that’s sort of beyond the scope of the question, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/12 "2011-12-03T05:45:28Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Maybe, but that’s sort of beyond the scope of the question, isn’t it? No, it isn’t. “British title” means that some human being should be treated in a special manner because he came out of a particular vagina. That’s just stupid, if not insane. And it has nothing to do with the willingness of people to worship any object or after-birth bio-waste they are told is “superior” to them. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/13 "2011-12-03T06:21:06Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > No, it isn’t. > > “British title” means that some human being should be treated in a special manner because he came out of a particular vagina. > > That’s just stupid, if not insane. > > And it has nothing to do with the willingness of people to worship any object or after-birth bio-waste they are told is “superior” to them. That is inaccurate. History is replete with examples of people who earned their titled, despite coming out of the “wrong vagina”. The first Duke of Wellington earned nearly every title the artisrocarcy has to give and he came out of the wrong vagina or perhaps from the right vagina at the wrong time. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/14 "2011-12-03T08:46:50Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > “British title” means that some human being should be treated in a special manner because he came out of a particular vagina. No it doesn’t. You’re referring to the increasingly archaic notion of hereditary titles. Cecils’ column above gives the example of “Nat Wei, a social activist and reformer, [who] was named Baron Wei of Shoreditch”. Like the great majority of members of the House of Lords, he was not born into a title, and his children will not inherit a title. ---
**Author:** ![spotthegerbil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@spotthegerbil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spotthegerbil)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/15 "2011-12-03T10:19:36Z")
Use Deed Poll, or whatever your local process is, to change your first name to Lord. Then change your bank cards and other ID to reflect your new first name. According to some sites, owning land in Scotland, even if it only involves buying a square foot of land, entitles you to call yourself Laird. Sincerely, Laird spotthegerbil of 537 Wallace Avenue, Inverness. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/16 "2011-12-03T10:43:51Z")
My middle name is Laird, so I don’t even have to buy any land, just not use my first name! yrs. Laird Meurglys of Edinburgh ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/17 "2011-12-03T16:54:50Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > “British title” means that some human being should be treated in a special manner because he came out of a particular vagina. While it is no doubt great fun for you to type the word “vagina”, British titles are typically inherited from one’s father [ETA: or other male relative], not one’s mother. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/18 "2011-12-03T18:09:04Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > And it has nothing to do with the willingness of people to worship any object or after-birth bio-waste they are told is “superior” to them. “Worship”? “Superior”? Can you name one single person in Britain who _worships_ titled people? Just one; you don’t have to list all 60-million Britons. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/19 "2011-12-03T18:10:41Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > While it is no doubt great fun for you to type the word “vagina”, British titles are typically inherited from one’s father [ETA: or other male relative], not one’s mother. Oddly enough, according to the [UK Adoption](http://www.ukadoption.com/great-britain/uk-ebook-chapter15.html) site, adopted children are \*\*not \*\*eligible to inherit peer titles, so \*\*Naxos’ \*\*point does stand in a small way. (Which doesn’t do anything to counteract the threadshit nature of his posting.) Odd, that. I would have expected the opposite, actually. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903/20 "2011-12-03T18:30:06Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > “Worship”? “Superior”? > > Can you name one single person in Britain who _worships_ titled people? Just one; you don’t have to list all 60-million Britons. Except for Our Lord Jesus Christ. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-buy-a-british-title/604903.md?page=2)