Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff marks dot com where
Speaker 1: smart happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question, who
Speaker 1: are the Duke of York, the Duke of Kent and
Speaker 1: so on? And how did they get their titles? The
Speaker 1: British Royal family is like other families, made up of spouses, children, grandchildren, grandparents, uncle's,
Speaker 1: aunts and cousins. The head of the British Royal family
Speaker 1: is Queen Elizabeth Too, and she is the one who
Speaker 1: decides who are bona fide members of the family and
Speaker 1: what titles they will carry. To answer your question, a
Speaker 1: duke is the highest rank you can achieve without being
Speaker 1: a king or a prince. Historically, a duke is a
Speaker 1: high ranking nobleman, landowner or a prince, and in feudal
Speaker 1: times was the lord over some part of the country.
Speaker 1: Today the titles are largely embolic, and there are twenty
Speaker 1: eight dukedoms. Some people, like Prince Charles, have several dukedoms,
Speaker 1: and some dukedoms are currently unassigned. When a duke who
Speaker 1: does not have an air dies, the title returns back
Speaker 1: to the royal family to be given out to someone new.
Speaker 1: Not everyone who carries the title duke or Earl is
Speaker 1: a member of today's royal family. Britain has a system
Speaker 1: of peerage which ranks members of the nobility and aristocracy.
Speaker 1: Many titles of nobility were one many years ago through
Speaker 1: great wealth, favors to the king or good deeds, and
Speaker 1: they're passed on from one generation to the next. This
Speaker 1: is known as the inherited peerage. For example, Earl Spencer,
Speaker 1: the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is
Speaker 1: the ninth man in his family to carry that title.
Speaker 1: Before he came Earl of Spencer. Note that the practices
Speaker 1: to drop the of upon the death of his father,
Speaker 1: he was known as Charles Spencer or as Viscount Althorpe,
Speaker 1: a title his son Lewis now carries. Other noble titles
Speaker 1: are given on merit or on special occasions. The life
Speaker 1: peerage are titles that the monarch confers on exceptional people
Speaker 1: during their lifetimes, and those titles do not pass to
Speaker 1: children or descendants. Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Britain,
Speaker 1: is now Baroness Thatcher. The British Prime Minister, consults with
Speaker 1: the Queen about who is deserving of a life peerage
Speaker 1: and several people are elevated to the peerage every year.
Speaker 1: Life peers get a seat in the House of Lords,
Speaker 1: but a law passed in limits the right of hereditary
Speaker 1: peers to have a seat. The order of the titles
Speaker 1: in British isles nobility from highest the lowest are first
Speaker 1: of all, the duke and duchess title. The name is
Speaker 1: derived from the Latin ducks, which means lead. Most dukedoms
Speaker 1: carry a place name, although that means little to the
Speaker 1: modern titles because the holders are not the sovereigns of
Speaker 1: that land area. The title marquis appeared in England with
Speaker 1: the Norman conquest and was given to nobles who were
Speaker 1: in charge of border areas. The name is related to
Speaker 1: older words for the frontier. The title earl comes from
Speaker 1: a Norse word which meant leader. It's equivalent to account
Speaker 1: in European nobility. The term viscount comes from the Latin
Speaker 1: word for companion, and was sort of an assistant nobleman
Speaker 1: in the old days. Baron is the lowest rank of
Speaker 1: nobility and came to England with the Norman's Also, and
Speaker 1: the word is derived from the Norman word for a freeman.
Speaker 1: If you have a life peerage. This is the highest
Speaker 1: title you can carry. Below these are the lower nobility,
Speaker 1: who carry the titles baronet. This title is granted to
Speaker 1: members of the upper classes, referred to as the gentle.
Speaker 1: The story is that King James the First created the
Speaker 1: title to raise money. Then there's a knight. In medieval times,
Speaker 1: knights were the soldiers of the king or of princes.
Speaker 1: Now the queen grants knighthood to her subjects who have
Speaker 1: achieved great success in their professions. Paul McCartney, the former
Speaker 1: Beatle has been knighted, for example. The female equivalent is
Speaker 1: dom or Dame Esquire in medieval times, and Esquire was
Speaker 1: a candidate for knighthood. Nowadays, it's applied to members of
Speaker 1: the gentry, just below the knights. The queen bestowed titles
Speaker 1: on her sons at their marriages and gave her daughter
Speaker 1: a special title. She has several titles that are hers
Speaker 1: to do with as she wishes. If an inherited peer
Speaker 1: dies without an error, the title becomes the crown's property. Again.
Speaker 1: Some titles that the queen's son's hold are part of
Speaker 1: the Scottish or Irish peerage. The prince's titles can be
Speaker 1: inherited by their sons. Be sure to check out our
Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how staff
Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing
Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The hou staff Works iPhone app has arrived.
Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes.