An Earl/Marquis/Duke in the Baronage of Scotland is an ancient title of nobility that is held en baroneum, which means that its holder, who is a feudal earl/marquis/duke, is also always a feudal baron. The holder may or may not be a Lord of Regality, which meant that the holder was appointed by the Crown and had the power of "pit and gallows", meaning the power to authorise the death sentence.
A feudal earl/marquis/duke ranks above both a baron and a lord (being a baron of a higher degree) in the Baronage of Scotland, but below all ranks in the Peerage of Scotland. Earldoms, marquisates and dukedoms are very rare.[2]
Since all feudal titles are based in Scots property law and not personal peerages, there are some instances when, for historic reasons, the feudal title happens to share the same name as an extant peerage title, but the current holder of the feudal title is different from the current holder of the peerage title of the same name. The two are not to be confused. Historically, they were held by one and the same person, but the feudal title may subsequently have been disponed according to Scots property law, whereas the peerage title always descends according to the destination in the letters patent of creation of the peerage and the rules of peerage law.
Scottish titles, in order of precedence, are as follows: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Lord, Baronet, Knight, Baron, Clan Chief, Esquire/Gentleman. Wallace states that "Lordships, Earldoms, Marquisates and Dukedoms differ only in name from Baronies" but continues "one whose property was erected into a Lordship ranked before a simple Baron" and "A person to whom an Earldom belonged, would be superior to a person who had no more than a lordship ... One, whose lands were incorporated into a Marquisate, was superior to both ... A man, who owned a fief elevated into a Dukedom, was exaulted above all three."[3] However, Lord Stair states that Lordships or Earldoms are "but more noble titles of a Barony".[4]
In 2014 the Lord Lyon King of Arms issued the "Note on the Petition of George Menking", under which he determined to accept petitions for the grant arms for feudal dignities including Earldoms, Marquisates and Dukedoms since such dignities have historically always been of the genus of a barony and as such represent a higher form of barony and fall within the jurisdiction of the King of Arms.
The Menking Note is considered an important change (and return to similar status of an earlier Lord Lyon) from an interim ruling on the petition in 2010 by a Swiss national Willi Ernst Sturzenegger, who had purchased the feudal Earldom of Arran, and wished to be titled as 'Willi Ernst Sturzenegger of Arran, Earl of Arran in the territorial baronage of Scotland' or 'Sturzenegger of Arran, holder of the territorial Earldom of Arran", or 'Sturzenegger of Arran, holder of the feudal Earldom of Arran'. In 2006, an earlier Lord Lyon had recognised three petitioners as "Feudal Countess of Crawfurd-Lindsay", "Feudal Earl of Breadalbane" and "Feudal Earl of Rothes". In the ruling in 2010, the Lord Lyon stated that as a general rule previous decisions should be followed, but he could not agree with them as the arguments in the previous cases did not appear to have been tested and no reasoning had been given by the prior Lord Lyon for his decisions. The title "feudal Earl", "territorial Earl", or simply "Earl", being used or recognised in respect of an assemblage of lands into an earldom had never existed until recently. He stated that while the Abolition of Feudal Tenure Act of 2000 divorced feudal baronies from land title, it preserved the title of baron. This was not the case he found with "territorial" or "feudal earldoms": "On the contrary there is a clear break between the type of territorial earldoms which existed before the evolution of a personal peerage, and the later erection of lands into what has been termed a “territorial earldom”. He therefore did not accept that it follows from the recognition of a feudal baron, or one possessed of the dignity of a former feudal barony, as “Baron of X”, that the person in possession of a “territorial earldom” stemming from the erection by the Crown of lands into a free earldom, should be recognised as an “Earl” or “Countess”, “feudal” or otherwise."[5] Since then, in April 2015 the Lord Lyon changed his mind and he may recognise a person possessing a barony (and other titles that are but nobler titles of baron within the Baronage of Scotland lord/earl/marquis/duke) on petition.[6]
Below is an incomplete list of Earldoms created in the baronage, please help by filling in details below (with reference links).
Titles in italics are subsidiary baronial titles held by the same earl. Titles with The before the name is the holder's primary title.
Note that some peerage titles of feudal origin sometimes have a duplicate baronage title of the same name either held by the current peer or transferred to a new holder.
The below are very rare, only two baronage titles are known to continue existing until today.
The Scots spelling of marquis, as a rule, follows the French spelling, rather than the English spelling "marquess".
Lord is the second degree of baronage nobility, nobler than Baron (first) but not before Earl (third), Marquess (fourth) or Duke (fifth).
Click here for a list of Lordships in the Baronage of Scotland
The first degree of baronage nobility.
Click here for a list of Baronies in the Baronage of Scotland
Higher dignities compared to baronage titles, erected in liberam regalitatem.
Click here for a list of Lordships of Regality