# Is "My Liege" still correct for addressing British Nobility & Royalty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876 "2010-03-18T13:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/21 "2010-03-18T20:08:46Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Given his propensity for [pushing quack medical remedies](http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/full/20/11/1755) (such as homeopathy and coffee enemas), it is considered correct to address Prince Charles as “Dumbass”. Not “His Royal Dumbass”? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/22 "2010-03-19T01:28:15Z")
aceplace57 writes: \> I saw a 60 minutes segment about some Duke that was giving tours of his \> estate to raise money. After a few century’s of high living and estate taxes, the \> nobility’s wealth is running low. That’s quite common in fact. Taxes are high enough that many, perhaps most, members of the aristocracy with impressive homes have to have tourists coming through frequently on tours to raise money. They don’t have to run the tours themselves, since various heritage groups run such tours, allowing the home’s owner to keep a large part of the ticket money. Gyrate writes: \> You may laugh, but it only took us Americans three years of living in London for \> my wife to meet (and have a nice chat with) the Queen; the wife has \> subsequently met Prince Charles and I’ve been in the presence of (i.e. was in \> the same room as but did not speak to) Her Maj twice in the past ten years. \> And we’re no one special. It happens. The royals get around a lot. Could you tell me how this happened? This matches nothing that I’ve ever heard of. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/23 "2010-03-19T01:35:11Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > My fellow Americans, I earnestly counsel you, do not try to learn this stuff. We fought two wars so we wouldn’t have to learn this stuff, although we pretended it was about taxation and George III and expansion of territory and all those more respectable-sounding reasons. [Paul Harvey] And now you know the rest of the story. [/Paul Harvey] ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/24 "2010-03-19T03:09:18Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Could you tell me how this happened? This matches nothing that I’ve ever heard of. Depends what you do and where you live. In my neck of the woods, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, has been a patron for a long time of a local charity. She’s a bit of a stern mentalist, but is kind, like her mother, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/25 "2010-03-19T08:07:53Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I saw a 60 minutes segment about some Duke that was giving tours of his estate to raise money. After a few century’s of high living and estate taxes, the nobility’s wealth is running low. It’s mostly estate taxes. Called Inheritance Tax here. Levied at 40%. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/26 "2010-03-19T09:25:49Z")
I’m asking for a reply from Gyrate, not from anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/27 "2010-03-19T09:32:13Z")
Our managing director is “Lord (i.e Baron) Carter of Coles” for official functions, but “Patrick” when he’s in the office. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/28 "2010-03-19T09:41:15Z")
What is a “peer?” Is such a person a peer to the Monarch? Is a peer ‘of royal blood?’ I ask as I know most peers (Lords) are life-lords nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/29 "2010-03-19T10:23:12Z")
My understanding was that peer was the short for of “peer of the realm”, those that were considered equals of the monarch (and each other) in honour although not in rank. Definitely not limited to those of Royal Blood although frequently, but not always, members of the Royal Family have titles of nobility and are peers as well. Life Peers have been enobled by Her Maj in the same way as a hereditary peer - the only difference is that the title is not passed on. It used to be that a “Peer” was one who sat in the House of Lords but that isn’t the case these days when most of the hereditaries have been banished! So, for instance, the Duke of Westminster is definitely a peer but does not have a voice in parliament. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/30 "2010-03-19T10:28:10Z")
> [@sassyfras](#): > > Since my experience of seeing English (UK, blah blah) royalty and nobility is limited to decades old BBC productions of Shakespeare, if I were to meet a noble or monarch of that Isle… How interesting that you seem to see the difference between England and the U.K, as being merely “blah, blah”. So, the fighting against ignorance still has some way to go, it seems. > [@](#): > > … monarch of that Isle Which isle did you have in mind there? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/31 "2010-03-19T11:10:36Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Conservative MP Michael Ancram is the Marquis of Lothian, although you would never guess it from his website. Surely he would have to have renounced his title in order to be an MP. > [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Depends what you do and where you live. In my neck of the woods, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, has been a patron for a long time of a local charity. She’s a bit of a stern mentalist, but is kind, like her mother, I think. Well, you are a Baron. 😃 Bur seriously, Princess Anne can read minds?! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/32 "2010-03-19T11:32:34Z")
No, he inherited it after the hereditary Peers were expelled from the House so he’s still eligible. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/33 "2010-03-19T12:17:54Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > No, he inherited it after the hereditary Peers were expelled from the House so he’s still eligible. The other example being Viscount Thurso, who did sit in the Lords until 1999 and who, without renouncing his title, is now the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. > [@Mk\_VII](#): > > The last-before-the-current Lord Nelson was a police sergeant. > > Another peer who inherited a title in later life was an Australian cattle farmer. > > The writer and humourist Patrick Campbell was Lord Glenarvy, though he never used the title. > > Conservative MP Michael Ancram is the Marquis of Lothian, although you would never guess it from his website.. Not forgetting the [5th Baron Haden-Guest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Guest) and [his baroness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Lee_Curtis). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/34 "2010-03-19T13:18:43Z")
> [@Saltire](#): > > I once heard a member of the royal retinue refer to the Queen of An Tir as ‘Her Madge.’ I tend to go with the classic “Queenie”. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/35 "2010-03-19T14:02:15Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I’m asking for a reply from Gyrate, not from anyone else. :eek: Sorry for intruding on your thread **Wendell**. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/36 "2010-03-19T14:46:23Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I’m asking for a reply from Gyrate, not from anyone else. Nevertheless, \ the Baron \ is correct - it is basically where you live and who you know. In our cases, it’s because we’re musicians who live in London and travel in the right circles - not posh ones, but charitable ones. The wife’s meeting with the Queen was during a visit by Her Majesty to a charity we were affiliated with. A composer acquaintance had written a special short piece for the occasion which was peppy and upbeat, which I gather was such a novelty to a woman used to entering every room to the strains of the dreariest national anthem ever that she stayed to talk to the musicians for a while. The Prince Charles thing was a FOAF getting her a gig playing background chamber music for a function; Charles does like his music. And my encounters were as part of the BBC Symphony Chorus: we did the Proms at the Palace in 2002 and a later Royal Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall which she attended. She did some meeting-and-greeting at both events. All the royals do a lot of charity work, especially the Queen and Princess Anne, so they do spend a lot of facetime with the great unwashed. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/37 "2010-03-19T15:34:49Z")
O.K., thanks, Gyrate. I knew that all of the royal family did a lot of appearances at charity functions. I should have made it clearer what I meant when I said that most people would never see the royal family except at formal functions. I didn’t mean just being invited to Buckingham Palace for a ball. A charitable function is formal in that the member of the royal family is scheduled, has a set speech to deliver, and doeesn’t come there just to hang out. My point still stands that nearly all people nearly all the time in the U.K. don’t have to worry what title to call somebody by. I apologize, Baron Greenback (or should I address you by some other title?), but you’ve got to understand how confusing the SDMB can be at times. Some poster will tell part of a personal anecdote. I will ask for clarification about the anecdote. Some other poster will jump in and decide that it’s his job to explain it, even though it’s not something that anyone except the first poster could possibly know about. I’m not trying to stop you from posting. I’m just trying to get the actual question that I asked answered. Discussions on a message board are still very frustrating for me. It’s often messy when someone doesn’t understand who a post has been addressed to. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/38 "2010-03-20T01:49:24Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > I apologize, Baron Greenback (or should I address you by some other title?) Ooh ooh, I know this! The correct form for direct address in speech would be “Lord Greenback” at the initial address, and “my lord” subsequently. If you’re on familiar terms, you would just call him “Greenback”. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/39 "2010-03-20T04:23:37Z")
I still want to know about Princess Anne’s telepathic powers, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876/40 "2010-03-20T05:59:38Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I still want to know about Princess Anne’s telepathic powers, though. Subject to correction by Lord **Greenback** , I would venture to guess that the phrase “she’s a bit of a stern mentalist” might be a delicate way of conveying the same notion implied by the more familiar American euphemism “cranio-rectal inversion”. See, “stern” in the sense of… oh never mind, you get the idea. If this interpretation is horribly off base and grossly maligns Her Royal Highness, I abjectly apologize, but given some of the assessments already offered in this thread of the intelligence of her brother Charles, it seemed like a reasonable inference. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-liege-still-correct-for-addressing-british-nobility-royalty/532876.md?page=3)