Lord almighty!
The British system of lords and ladies is in upheaval.
Lords with hereditary titles have been thrown out of Parliament. Ordinary British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens can apply to sit in the House of Lords.
And a commoner can call himself lord of the manor for a few thousand quid.
The firm Chatsworth of London has been advertising “3 British Titles of great respectability and standing” for sale at prices ranging from $17,000 to $25,000.
British Feudal Investments will sell you the right to call yourself Baron Beauchamp of Bedford for $55,000, and offers cheaper titles from Armenia, Georgia and Albania. Irish titles, including some held by forebears of Princess Diana, can be had at bargain prices.
But look before you leap, my wannabe lords and ladies. Many of these titles have little value and convey no more than the right to call oneself “lord of the manor.”
“Guys running these cons are exploiting ambiguity in the word peer,” said Frederick Hogarth, a retired defense analyst who runs Baronage Press, a Web site devoted to feudal history. “We know that one chap is earning one million pounds a year [selling titles].”
He explained that the title “lord of the manor” was originally used to describe large landholders who had been granted certain privileges – say, the right to hold markets, or fishing and mineral rights.
He noted that legislation removed most of those rights in 1922.
“Saying that lord of the manor gave the title holder the right to call himself lord is rubbish,” he said.
Neither Chatsworth of London nor British Feudal Investments would comment on the titles they have for sale.
But the British Consulate has something to say.
Its Web site disavows the sale of titles: “Misleading advertisements for lordships of manors sometimes appear in the press. A manorial lordship is not an aristocratic title, but a semi-extinct form of landed property. Lordship in this sense is a synonym for ownership.”
The House of Lords confirmed that while people can call themselves anything they want – an information officer cited American jazz musicians, Earl This and Count That – manorial lords do not have the right to sit in Parliament.
In fact, most hereditary peers are not allowed in the House of Lords. All but 90 lords were forced to give up their seats in Parliament as part of a government effort to reform the upper house.
Still, if the disposed peers want to queue up with commoners, they can now apply for re-entry to the House of Lords.
Britain recently set up an independent commission to solicit and process applications for appointments as independent, non-party lords.
Successful candidates will join the ranks of novelists (Jeffrey Archer, P.D. James), retired politicians (Margaret Thatcher) and other deserving appointees as life peers.