Peerage

The Peerage is a system of titles of nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title.

All British honours, including peerage dignities, spring from the Sovereign, who is considered the fount of honour. The Sovereign, as "the fountain and source of all dignities cannot hold a dignity from himself" (opinion of the House of Lords in the Buckhurst Peerage Case), cannot belong to the Peerage. If an individual is neither the Sovereign nor a peer, he or she is a commoner. Members of a peer"s family who are not themselves peers (including such members of the Royal Family) are also commoners; the British system thus differs fundamentally from continental European ones, where entire families, rather than individuals, were ennobled.