My lord Earl and his wife the ??????

jgbrowning · Nov 4, 2002

um.. what do you call an Earl's wife?

Earless? any brits out there help this poor yank?

joe b.

jgbrowning · Nov 4, 2002

I don't know... GRRR!!!!!!

I have a huge list (70+) of the precedence of the various peer/gentry from england and they just skip over "Earl's wives."

yep, apparantly in the 1000+ friggen years of british recording their peeps.... not a single earls wife wanted to be paid attention too... gah!

joe b.

Aitch Eye · Nov 4, 2002

Earl's wives are called "countess." You can do a Google search for "Earl wife title" if you want more details, or look at the link below:

http://members.shaw.ca/jobev/title.html

jgbrowning · Nov 4, 2002

*ROFL*

you know what? there really couldn't be any more of a typically "british" response to my question. hahahahahah

"You silly git! Everyone knows that Earl's wives are Countesses..."

thanks for the info.. gah!

joe b.

Aitch Eye · Nov 4, 2002

I especially like that "Count has never been used as an English title," though "the rank immediately below earl is viscount (i.e. vice-count)."

http://www.takeourword.com/TOW121/page1.html

Dragongirl · Nov 4, 2002

Not that anyone asked but . . .

Duke
Wife : Duchess
Style : His Grace the Duke of ______
Addressed : My Lord Duke or Your Grace
Eldest son : Takes on a secondary title of the duke (if there is one, always is one in Britain) as a curtesty title.
Younger sons and daughters : Lord or Lady (christian name)

Marquess
Wife : Marchioness
Style : The Most Hon. (Honorable) the Marquess of ______
Addressed : My Lord Marquess
Children : Same as Duke above.

Earl
Wife : Countess
Style : The Right Hon. the Earl of ________
Addressed : My Lord
Eldest son : As Duke above.
Younger sons : the Hon. (christian name)
Daughters : Lady (christian name)

Viscount
Wife : Viscountess
Style : The Right Hon. the Viscount of _________
Addressed : My Lord
Children : the Hon. (christian name)

Barons
Wife : Baroness
Style : The Right Hon. the Baron of ________
Addressed : My Lord
Children : no honorific

Baronet
Wife addressed as : Your Ladyship or Lady (surname)
Style : Sir (name), Bt. such as Sir George Windsor, Bt.
Addressed : Sir (christian name)

Edena_of_Neith · Nov 4, 2002

Thank you, Dragongirl. Interesting reading.

Scarogoth · Nov 4, 2002

Not that anyone asked for even more... ;-)

One of the most comprehensive lists of address that you might find for the nobility can be found at:

Correct forms of address

which covers just about everything that you could possibly want, I trust!

MeepoTheMighty · Nov 4, 2002

Why are all of those links talking about romance novels? Who cares about romance novels?

Skarp Hedin · Nov 4, 2002

Why are all of those links talking about romance novels? Who cares about romance novels?

There's a big subcategory of romance novels set in the Regency period in England, while George III was too far gone in his mental illness to actually rule, but had not yet passed away. The future George IV ruled in his father's stead as regent for about ten years, from 1810 to 1820, at which point his father died and he ruled for another ten years.

At any rate, there's a ton of these Regency romance novels, and since they all seem to be about the upper classes (for as we all know, poor people aren't interesting

), you need to know how to address everyone.

[ edit: conflated reigns of Georges III and IV ]