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| The chapeau (or cap of maintenance) represents Scot barons in historical heraldry instead of a coronet |
| The Ancient Nobility of the Baronage of Scotland |
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| Convention of the Three Estates |
The Much Honoured (abbreviated to The Much Hon.) is an honorific style applied to various minor nobles in Scotland, including Scots barons.
There were around 350 identifiable local baronies in Scotland by the early fifteenth century and these could mostly be mapped against local parish boundaries. [3] In addition, there are a small number of extant baronage earldoms in the Baronage of Scotland (Aboyne, Arran, Breadalbane, Crawfurd-Lindsay, Errol, Lennox, Orkney, Rothes, Wigtoun), one extant baronage marquisate (Huntly) and one extant baronage dukedom (Hamilton), all held in baroneum. Since all these titles are personal titles based in Scots property law and not peerages, there are some instances when, for historic reasons, the baronage title happens to share the same name as an extant peerage title, but the current holder of the baronage title is different from the current holder of the peerage title of the same name. The two are not to be confused. Historically, they were held by one and the same person, but the baronage title may subsequently have been disponed according to Scots property law, whereas the peerage title always descends according to the destination in the letters patent of creation of the peerage and the rules of peerage law.
The highest-ranking baron in Scotland is HRH The Duke of Rothesay, who holds the barony of Renfrew; by tradition both titles are held concurrently by the heir apparent to the British throne.
Genuine territorial lairds (not those owning souvenir plots of land) style themselves "The Much Honoured", albeit archaic. This practice is now in decline - with notable exceptions, namely that of Catherine Maxwell-Stuart, 21st Lady of Traquair. The official use of titles and honorifics in Scotland comes under the jurisdiction of the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh. [4]
Historically, the honorific is used in association with five groups:
The eldest son of a Scots minor noble is entitled to be addressed by courtesy as the Younger (abbreviated to the Yr); the eldest daughter of a minor noble, if heir apparent, is entitled to use the courtesy title The Maid of [designation] (e.g. David Leslie the Younger and The Maid of Leslie).
The honorific "The Much Honoured" is distinct from honorifics attaching to peers of the realm.
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knight, but lower than a viscount or count. Often, barons hold their fief – their lands and income – directly from the monarch. Barons are less often the vassals of other nobles. In many kingdoms, they were entitled to wear a smaller form of a crown called a coronet.
A courtesy title is a form of address and/or reference in systems of nobility used for children, former wives and other close relatives of a peer, as well as certain officials such as some judges and members of the Scottish gentry. These styles are used "by courtesy" in the sense that persons referred to by these titles do not in law hold the substantive title. There are several different kinds of courtesy titles in the British peerage system.
Forms of address used in the United Kingdom are given below.
William Sinclair (1410–1480), 1st Earl of Caithness (1455–1476), last Earl (Jarl) of Orkney, 2nd Lord Sinclair and 11th Baron of Roslin was a Norwegian and Scottish nobleman and the builder of Rosslyn Chapel, in Midlothian.
Earl of Rothes is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for George Leslie, 1st Lord Leslie. He had already been created Lord Leslie in 1445, also in the Peerage of Scotland. His grandson, the third Earl, having only succeeded his elder brother in March 1513, was killed at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September of the same year. His son, the fourth Earl, served as an Extraordinary Lord of Session. Lord Rothes was also tried for the murder of Cardinal Beaton but was acquitted.
False titles of nobility or royal title scams are claimed titles of social rank that have been fabricated or assumed by an individual or family without recognition by the authorities of a country in which titles of nobility exist or once existed. They have received an increasing amount of press attention, as more schemes that purport to confer or sell such honorifics are promoted on the internet. Concern about the use of titles which lack legal standing or a basis in tradition has prompted increased vigilance and denunciation, although under English common law a person may choose to be known by any name they see fit as long as it is not done to "commit fraud or evade an obligation".
In Scotland, "baron" or "baroness" is a rank of the ancient nobility of the Baronage of Scotland, a hereditary title of honour, and refers to the holder of a barony, formerly a feudal superiority or prescriptive barony attached to land erected into a free barony by Crown Charter, this being the status of a minor baron, recognised by the crown as noble, but not a peer.
George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes was a Scottish nobleman and diplomat.
The Scottish Noblesse is a class of aristocracy in Scotland, including both those with peerage titles as well as those without. The concept of this distinct Scottish noble class was prominently advocated for by Sir Thomas Innes of Learney during his tenure as Carrick Pursuivant of Arms and later Lord Lyon King of Arms.
Laird is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those holding official recognition in a territorial designation by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. They are usually styled [name] [surname] of [lairdship]. However, since "laird" is a courtesy title, it has no formal status in law.
A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a barony, comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely been superseded by baronies held as a rank of nobility, without any attachment to a fief. However, in Scotland, the feudal dignity of baron remains in existence, and may be bought and sold independently of the land to which it was formerly attached.
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan (1442–1499) was a Scottish noble. He was the uncle of James III of Scotland who granted him the Earldom of Buchan in 1469. Buchan repaid his nephew by fighting for his cause against rebellious southern barons. Through his marriage to Margaret Ogilvy he acquired the title Lord Auchterhouse.
The British nobility is made up of the peerage and the (landed) gentry. The nobility of its four constituent home nations has played a major role in shaping the history of the country, although the hereditary peerage now retain only the rights to stand for election to the House of Lords, dining rights there, position in the formal order of precedence, the right to certain titles, and the right to an audience with the monarch.
A Lord in the Baronage of Scotland is an ancient title of nobility, held in baroneum, which Latin term means that its holder, who is a lord, is also always a baron. The holder may or may not be a Lord of Regality, which meant that the holder was appointed by the Crown and had the power of "pit and gallows", meaning the power to authorise the death sentence.
The Scots Peerage is a nine-volume book series of the Scottish nobility compiled and edited by Sir James Balfour Paul, published in Edinburgh from 1904 to 1914. The full title is The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom.
In England, the baronage was the collectively inclusive term denoting all members of the feudal nobility, as observed by the constitutional authority Edward Coke. It was replaced eventually by the term peerage.
Margaret Stewart was the younger daughter of James II of Scotland and Mary of Guelders. Once engaged to the Lancastrian Prince of Wales, Margaret instead became the mistress of William Crichton, 3rd Lord Crichton, and the mother of his illegitimate daughter, Margaret Crichton, later Countess of Rothes, and his son, Sir James Crichton, progenitor of the Viscounts of Frendraught. Margaret and Lord Crichton may have been married later, after the death of Crichton's wife.
An Earl/Marquis/Duke in the Baronage of Scotland is an ancient title of nobility that is held en baroneum, which means that its holder, who is a earl/marquis/duke in the Baronage of Scotland, is also always a baron. The holder may or may not be a Lord of Regality, which meant that the holder was appointed by the Crown and had the power of "pit and gallows", meaning the power to authorise the death sentence.
In the Baronage of Scotland, a Lord of Regality is an ancient noble title. Lords of regality were said to hold a regality - a type of territorial jurisdiction under old Scots law. This jurisdiction was created by erecting lands in liberam regalitatem, and the area over which this right extended became the regality.
Baron of Glengarnock is a title of nobility in the Baronage of Scotland in the county of Ayrshire.
