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WP:PEER

This WikiProject primarily aims to standardise pages about peerages and baronetcies in the United Kingdom and Ireland (including the former states of England, Scotland, and Great Britain), and their holders.

Pages on peerages

A page about a particular title (such as Duke of Norfolk or Earl of Derby) may include the following information:

The history of the title and associated titles
The remainder (i.e., the rule for inheritance of the title)
A list of the holders of the titles and of the associated titles.

Titles should only share articles when one is totally connected to the other. For instance, no one has even been Marquess of Tavistock without being Duke of Bedford, so information on the former title should be in the latter's article. Where titles were created independently and then came to be held by the same person, or later split, there should be separate articles, so for instance we have articles on Earl of Arundel and Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Cardigan and Marquess of Ailesbury, Earl of Bedford and Duke of Bedford. If titles share an article, the article should be at the highest extant title: Duke of Bolton, for instance, should redirect to Marquess of Winchester, since the former is extinct but the latter is extant.

The history should note the creation or creations of the titles in question, and should also indicate if the circumstances under which any peerage of a previous creation ended: forfeiture, extinction, etc. The article should note the subsidiary titles, and any courtesy titles used.

The list could be formatted as follows, with Earl of Anyplace a title associated with Duke of Somewhere, the article being at "Duke of Somewhere":

Earls of Anyplace, first Creation (1700–1750)

A B C D, 1st Earl of Anyplace (d. 1725)
A B C D, 2nd Earl of Anyplace (1675-1750)

Earls of Anyplace, second Creation (1800—)

A B C D, 1st Earl of Anyplace (1750-1825)
A B C D, 2nd Earl of Anyplace (1775-1850)
A B C D, 3rd Earl of Anyplace (1800-1875) (created Duke of Somewhere in 1860)

Dukes of Somewhere (1860—)

A B C D, 1st Duke of Somewhere (1800-1875)
A B C D, 2nd Duke of Somewhere (1825-1900)
A B C D, 3rd Duke of Somewhere (b. 1900)

The years listed next to the titles are the years of creation and extinction etc. (if applicable), while the remaining are birth and death dates.

Use: c. for circa; b. for born; d. for died; and second Creation, etc, to indicate more than one creation of the same title.

After the list, the current heirs should be listed, in this format:

Heir Apparent: A B C D, Marquess of Elsewhere (b. 1930)

Lord Elsewhere's Heir Apparent: A B C D, Earl of Anywhere (b. 1960)

Pages on peers

Location

A peer's article should be at "Name, (Ordinal) Rank (of) Title (for example, John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, Charlie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton), except in cases where the title is never (or hardly ever) used. This normally applies in two situations:

when the title holder did not use the peerage (Bertrand Russell, not "Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell"; Richard Needham, not "Richard Needham, 6th Earl of Kilmorey"; Michael Ancram, not Michael Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian)
when the pre-ennoblement name of a peer is exclusively used in normal usage, often when the peerage was a retirement honour (Clement Attlee, not "Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee"; P. D. James, not "P. D. James, Baroness James of Holland Park")

In both cases, the peerage can be used when necessary for disambiguation, and should always be preferred over parenthetical disambiguation (Douglas Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham, not "Douglas Hogg (politician)" or similar).

Notes:

"Marquess" should always be used, never "Marquis", for the British rank.
The ordinal "1st" is used even when a title became extinct on the death of its first holder.
Wives of peers, when the title is used in the article name (the same rules apply as for substantive peers as to whether it should be), should have their married surnames.
Wives of barons (both hereditary and life) should be termed "Baroness" in the article title. Example: Margaret Russell, Baroness Ampthill.
When individuals inherited or were created peers but are best known to history by a courtesy title, use that. Examples: Frederick North, Lord North (not "Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford"), Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (not "Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry").
When a peer holds one or more other peerages of the same rank as his most senior peerage, use only the most senior peerage in the title. Example: Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, not "Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and 1st Duke of Lennox" or "Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox".
Single peerages with multiple parts should be used in full. Example: Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, not "Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore".
Articles on Royal peers who are/were princes should be at "Prince Name, Rank of Title" (i.e. no ordinal). Examples: Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.
Articles on Royal peers who were not princes (i.e. those before the 16th century) should have ordinals and should use the territorial "surname" usually taken from a place of birth. Examples: Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge.

Content

Articles on peers should start with the appropriate linked honorific (The Right Honourable for Earls, Countesses, Viscounts, Viscountesses, Barons and Baronesses; The Most Honourable for Marquesses and Marchionesses; The Most Noble for Dukes and Duchesses), and then the peer's full name and highest title(s) in bold, followed by linked honorifics, separated from the name and each other by commas, and then the dates of birth and death in brackets as usual. For example, the article on Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, should start:

The Most Noble Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (c. 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was...

As the code shows, each honorific links to the appropriate article:

If a peer bore courtesy titles before succeeding, these should be mentioned at the beginning, after the dates of birth and death. For example, the article on a fictional peer might begin:

The Most Honourable John Henry William Smith, 6th Marquess of Somewhere, KG, PC (born 22nd March 1932), styled Viscount Anywhere until 1954 and Earl of Elsewhere between 1954 and 1983, is...

Notes:

Royal peers do not have any honorific prefix: their styles should be contained in a style box template (see Template:Infobox hrhstyles).
The Most Noble is always used for non-Royal Dukes and Duchesses, never "His Grace" or "Her Grace".
With peers who are also styled "The Reverend" (or a higher version), this goes before the appropriate honorific prefix and is separated from it by the word "and". Example: "The Right Reverend and Right Honourable..."
"Sir" is not used before the name of a peer who is also a knight or a baronet.
The post-nominal abbrevation "Bt" for "Baronet" should not be used with peers.
Titles and prefixes issuing from sources other than the Crown and the Church (for example, "Dr" and "Professor") should not be used with peers.
As in the article title, wives of Barons should be termed "Baroness" in the opening.
The highest title should always be used at the beginning of the article, even if a lesser one is used in the article title.
Unlike in the article title, when a peer holds one or more other peerages of the same rank as his most senior peerage, they should all be used in the opening, with a connecting "and" if appropriate ("7th Earl of X and 5th Earl of Y", or "7th Earl of X, 5th Earl of Y and 2nd Earl Z").
Use of the appropriate honorific is completely unconnected to membership of the Privy Council — the articles on all peers and peeresses below the rank of Marquess or Marchioness should begin "The Right Honourable...". Peers who are Privy Counsellors should have the post-nominal "PC" (linked to Privy Council of the United Kingdom) placed after their name and title.

Succession

Succession to peerages should be shown by succession box templates (see Template:Succession box). All peerages with different predecessors or successors should have individual boxes, as should those held at different dates. For example:

Preceded by New Creation	Earl of Somewhere 1942–1997	Succeeded by Extinct
Preceded by John Smith	Viscount Smith 1927–1997	Succeeded by Henry Smith

Titles should be listed in descending order of seniority (in contrast to succession boxes for offices, which are listed in ascending chronological order).

For more specific examples, see Template talk:Succession box.

References to peers

In text

In familial references (when stating who someone's father, mother, brother, etc. was), and in non-contemporaneous references (i.e. references to time periods different to that of the narrative), peers should be referred to as, for example, "the 7th Marquess of Salisbury" (henceforth "the full form"). In other situations, peers should usually be referred to simply as, for instance, "Lord Salisbury" (henceforth "the short form"), both when mentioned in other articles and in their own articles, unless it is important that their exact rank or numeral is stated, in which case the full form should be used (i.e. both the rank and the numeral). Dukes are "the 12th Duke of Devonshire" in their full form and "the [[Peregrine Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire|Duke of Devonshire]" otherwise. Second and subsequent reference should be to "Lord Salisbury" or "Salisbury" ("the Duke" or "Devonshire" for Dukes). Their wives have the same form of reference, save that ordinals are obviously omitted and the usage of the title alone should not be used: "Lady Salisbury" or "the Duchess".

Notes:

Peers below the rank of Duke should not be referred to by their rank alone: "the Marquess said...", "the Earl went...", etc., should never be used.
Male life peers should be referred to as "the Lord Title" in full form, not "the Baron Title".
Peers whose titles are in the form "X of Y" should always be referred to by the full title, if a title is used, but use of the X alone, without a preceding "Lord" or "Lady", is fine. Example: the Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare should be called "Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare" or "Archer", but never "Lord Archer".
Peers whose titles are in the form "X and Y" are referred to at second mention by the X alone, e.g. the 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is "Lord Strathmore" at second mention.
Life peeresses should be referred to as "the Baroness Title" in full form, but simply "Lady Title" in running text.

In lists

Peers should appear in lists either in the form used in the article title (substituting a different peerage if appropriate for the time period in question) or by their correct style (see Forms of Address in the United Kingdom). Usual practice is to use the full form for historical lists (e.g. lists of incumbents of a particular office) and the correct style for contemporary lists (e.g. lists of current Privy Counsellors or members of the House of Lords), but usage is by no means consistent, and the form considered most appropriate for a particular list should be used (more graphical lists tend to use the correct style for aesthetic reasons).

Articles on baronetcies

Articles on baronetcies should be sorted by surname, i.e. all baronetcies held by people with a particular surname should share an article, regardless of whether they are actually related. The article should be at "Surname Baronets", e.g. Mount Baronets. They should have a very similar format to articles on peerages (and, indeed, if a noble family held a baronetcy before a peerage, it should be included as if a previous peerage). The article should thus be in the following format:

Smith Baronets, of London (1750—)

Sir John Smith, 1st Baronet (1700-1775)
Sir Henry Arthur Smith, 2nd Baronet (1725-1800)
Sir Robert Henry Alexander Smith, 3rd Baronet (1750-1825) (created Baron Smith in 1815)

Barons Smith (1815—)

Robert Henry Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Smith (1750-1825)

etc.

Articles on baronets

Location

Baronets should generally be at their simple name; for example, Robert Peel. When necessary for disambiguation (as is often necessary, as these families tend to reuse names), the baronetcy can be included in the article title in the form "Sir Forename Surname, Ordinal Baronet"; for example, Sir William Mount, 1st Baronet and Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet. (The 3rd Baronet, Ferdinand Mount, would not be at "Sir Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet" even if he used the title, as it is not necessary for disambiguation.) The baronetcy alone should not be used for disambiguation without the preceding "Sir": "John Smith" or "Sir John Smith, 17th Baronet" are fine, but "John Smith, 17th Baronet" should not be used.

Content

Articles should start with the name (preceded by an honorific prefix if applicable) and "Ordinal Baronet" in bold, followed as with other people by post-nominal letters. For example:

Sir John Henry Smith, 5th Baronet, VC, MC (1 January 1900–31 December 1970) was a British war hero...

The Right Honourable Sir William Charles Jones, 4th Baronet, CBE (born 4 July 1940) is a British politician...

References

Baronets, as with knights, should be referred to as "Sir John Smith", and afterwards as "Sir John" or "Smith". Again as with knights, the "Sir" should be included in the link, even if not in the article title; e.g. [[John Smith|Sir John Smith]]. The numeral and "Baronet" should normally not be included in text (e.g. [[Sir John Smith, 7th Baronet|Sir John Smith]]), except when making familial references or when confusion might otherwise arise.

Succession

As with peers, boxes should be used. They should be formatted like this:

Preceded by New Creation	Baronet (of London) 1800–1850	Succeeded by John Smith

The code looks like this:

{{start box}}
{{succession box |
     title=[[Smith Baronets|Baronet]]<br>'''(of London) |
     before=New Creation |
     after=[[Sir John Smith, 2nd Baronet|John Smith]] |
     years='''1800–1850 }}
{{end box}}