the.com/peerage
Britain's VIP list, where your job title is literally 'better than you'.
means The system of titled nobility (dukes, earls, viscounts, barons, and the like) and the collective body of people who hold those ranks.
from From 'peer,' meaning an equal — which traces back through French to the Latin 'par,' meaning equal or equivalent. The irony is baked in: peers were originally one's equals, the nobles who judged and stood alongside each other, but 'peerage' came to label an exclusive club explicitly ranked above everyone outside it.
- five ranks
- duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron, in order
- life peers
- created since 1958, titles die with them
- house of lords
- hereditary peers lost automatic seats in 1999
- royal creation
- only the monarch can officially grant a peerage