Special privileges for UK nobility?

[drewder]

I know being Queen isn’t what it used to be but I have to wonder if peers in the UK have any special privileges left on the books. I know some have the right to a seat in The House of Lords, which it seems has lately become more of a men’s club than an actual voting part of parliament since the Commons took most of their functionality away.

I’m wondering though if there are any privileges to being a duke or earl these days. Are they harder to arrest? Automatically get their children into the military academy? A jury made up of only peers? Anything? I realize most own a lot of land and can exercise power over that land but does having a title change anything or would any land owner be basically the same?

[Quartz]

@drewder

I know being Queen isn’t what it used to be but I have to wonder if peers in the UK have any special privileges left on the books.

Not really. We’ll see soon enough if they get invited to the Monarch’s coronation.

I know some have the right to a seat in The House of Lords, which it seems has lately become more of a men’s club than an actual voting part of parliament since the Commons took most of their functionality away.

Many members of the House of Lords are ladies.

I’m wondering though if there are any privileges to being a duke or earl these days. Are they harder to arrest?

No.

Automatically get their children into the military academy?

Possibly by virtue of social connections, not because they are nobles per se.

A jury made up of only peers?

Princess Anne was tried in a common court, so probably not.

I realize most own a lot of land

I’m not sure that’s true any more.

and can exercise power over that land but does having a title change anything or would any land owner be basically the same?

The title ‘Lord of the Manor of X’ can be bought and sold but is not itself a grant of nobility.

[Lord_Feldon]

They get to vote and stand in elections for the hereditary peerage slots in the House of Lords.

@Quartz

Princess Anne was tried in a common court, so probably not.

It has indeed been abolished (in 1948), but Princess Anne doesn’t hold a peerage and wouldn’t have had that right. (It extended to wives of peers too, but she’s never been one of those either.)

[Lord_Feldon]

@Lord_Feldon

They get to vote and stand in elections for the hereditary peerage slots in the House of Lords.

I was wrong, they can only stand in the elections. Only the hereditary peers already in the Lords (or the whole House of Lords for some of the seats) get to vote. I was thinking of how the Scottish and Irish peers used to select their representatives.

[PatrickLondon]

@Quartz

The title ‘Lord of the Manor of X’ can be bought and sold but is not itself a grant of nobility.

Nor, usually, does it come per se with any land or any rights over land or property, which will probably have been overtaken by events and legal changes over the centuries. It’s usually just the right to an ornate piece of parchment.

[drewder]

Sounds like being a peer is more trouble than it is worth.

[Little_Nemo]

The only remaining legal right which a British peer may hold is access to the monarch. In theory, a British peer can assert that they have something important to tell the monarch and the monarch is legally obligated to hear them.

But this is very theoretical. No peer has actually invoked this right in recent times. But there was a proposal to formally abolish the right in 1999 and the proposal was not adopted. So I would speculate that means it still exists.

[drewder]

@Little_Nemo

The only remaining legal right which a British peer may hold is access to the monarch. In theory, a British peer can assert that they have something important to tell the monarch and the monarch is legally obligated to hear them.

But this is very theoretical. No peer has actually invoked this right in recent times. But there was a proposal to formally abolish the right in 1999 and the proposal was not adopted. So I would speculate that means it still exists.

That makes me laugh a little. Thinking of an Earl finding out about an upcoming terrorist attack and rushing off to London to let the Queen know but being blocked because parliament just revoked his right to see her.