A peerage is a form of crown distinction, with peerages in the United Kingdom comprising both hereditary and lifetime titled appointments of various ranks, which form both a constituent part of the le
Wax impression of a Great Seal of the Realm (that used 1953–2001), which is affixed to all letters patent creating new peerages
The House of Lords showing government, opposition and the cross benches
The Lord Speaker presiding from the woolsack
Alec Douglas-Home (c.1963), the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to serve from the House of Lords
Hereditary peer
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The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of October 2025, there were 799 hereditary peers: 29 dukes, 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons.
Peerages in the United Kingdom
…unconditionally hereditable on the abolition of feudal tenure by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660. Thus over time baronies by writ effectively became hereditary peerages, even if this had not been the intention of the original issuer of the writ. By the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, many remaining baronies by tenure who…
The House of Lords, sitting in its old chamber, burned down in 1834, as drawn by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson for Rudolph Ackermann's Microcosm of London, 1808–1811
Letters patent granting the Dukedom of Marlborough to Sir John Churchill were later amended by Parliament.
In 1984 Harold Macmillan, a former prime minister, was the last non-royal recipient of a hereditary peerage, the Earldom of Stockton.
Matt Ridley, science writer and conservative journalist, is the Viscount Ridley.