IIRC Henry VIII had a habit of reassigning forfeited or vacant earldoms and other high hereditary titles to nobles he was planning to execute anyway, which meant they came back to him. The most notable case I can think of was when he gave Thomas Cromwell the recently-passed-to-Henry Earldom of Essex, then took it back when he executed him a few weeks later.
To weave into the OP, Henry VIII tried & executed Buckingham’s son, the second Duke of Buckingham and Henry’s cousin several different ways (closest probably that he was Henry’s mother’s first cousin) on trumped up charges and confiscated much of his property.
Henry VII had restored much of the property that had been confiscated or withheld from his mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth (widow of Edward IV) and Anne de Beauchamp (widow of the turncoat Earl of Warwick, mother-in-law of George of Clarence and of [consecutively] Henry VI’s son and then Richard III, and once fantastically wealthy in her own right before going into sanctuary) to these women, then accepted the majority of it from them as a “gift” before sending them into grace and favor lodgings. (There is a name for this- a mandatory ‘gift’ to a king- but I can’t remember the name of it.)
Benevolence?
That’s it. Thanks. (For those playing at home: a benevolence is a required “gift” to the king; you don’t actually have to give it but then you don’t have to remain out of prison or alive either. IIRC, Hampton Court Palace was a benevolence to Henry VIII from Cardinal Wolsey designed to gain his way back into favor; didn’t work, though Henry did take it and even ordered an immediate inventory of its furnishings.)
I have read – including, in magazine advertisements for this sort of thing – that there are estates in Britain the ownership of which entitles one to the style of “lord” or “laird,” though it does not make one a Peer of the Realm.
Selling titles, particularly baronets/lordships, were a popular source of revenue in several countries. The trick was to make the price high enough that not just any social climbing well to do tavern owner could afford it (because that would devalue it) but affordable enough you could sell a lot of them.
If the U.S. government offered a title (General or Governor or whatever) for something similar to $250,000 in today’s money it’d perhaps be comparable; most people- including those who had that much cash- would say “Too rich for my blood” but a few would pay that to be “Colonel Smith” even if it came with no military rank.
I believe those are just “lord of the manor” type situations. The “entitlement” is simply based on local custom and has no connection with the monarchy and really no official status at all.
For example, prior to 1947, every village in Bengal had a “raja” (“king”) who just happened to be the largest landowner in the area, simply because local people started kowtowing to the rich guy and flattering him by calling him a king. The title didn’t flow from any real recognition of nobility.
Yeah, there’s loads of those. Basically just “local rich guy” in origin.
Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband, who styles himself Frederick, Prince von Anhalt, bought his title by paying the last kaiser’s ancient and cash poor daughter-in-law to “adopt” him many years ago and has made a fortune “adopting” others to give them a title. The problem is that his adoptions have absolutely no validity whatever in making anybody nobility than if you went to the courthouse and changed your name to Bubba Earl, Lord Admiral Cardinal of Toppin-Middlebottom, yet several people have paid him a lot of money for the privilege.
There is a pretender to the throne of the Byzantine Empire (not making this up) who also sells titles.
I don’t like to name drop, but my grandmother was the Grand Duchess Xenia, commonly thought to have been murdered with the rest of her family but in reality by the time of their arrest she had fallen in love with and married by grandfather, an Alabama railroad employee; the other Romanovs somehow found it less tragic to say she was murdered and her body dismembered. In any case, I’m more of a Democrat and since I don’t use my title (Grand Duke of Crimea, the Baltics, and Lower Coosa and Tallapoosa Counties) I’m prepared to make somebody a steal on it. (I have the documentation of course- or will have if you give me a couple of hours.)
The imperial family is known to have used Printshop to make official documents on tractor-feed paper. They’re very old school.
I’ll swap you for the Kingship of Lower Slobbovia, the Emirate of Bumfukistan and an antipapacy (it’s a long story but trust me, it’s transferable).
More than one. Most of them use the surname “Paleologus” or “Paleologue”. Never mind the fact that it was a fairly common surname even before one of them became emperor. And that the Romanovs of Russia have about as strong a claim as anyone to the Byzantine throne.
As it happens, I’m a Kentucky Colonel (Kentucky Colonel - Wikipedia), but I don’t routinely introduce myself that way, and it’s not on my business cards.
Uncle Sam can’t offer hollow titles for cash, obviously: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.” U.S. Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 9.