List of Peerages Created For Women

List Of Peerages Created For Women

This is a list of peerages created for women in the peerages of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom. It does not include peerages created for men which were later inherited by women, or life peerages created since 1958.

Prior to the regular creation of life peerages, the great majority of peerages were created for men. Suo jure peeresses are known from an early period; however, most of them were women to whom a peerage had passed as an inheritance. It was very rare for a woman to be created a peeress before the 17th century. Peeresses, whether by creation or inheritance, did not take seats in the House of Lords; and in some but not all cases, peeresses of first creation were created for life only.

Created peeresses fall into the following categories:

• Created for merit or achievement
• Having a father who was a peer, but who under the terms of the peerage could not pass the peerage to his daughter. Such an event could create the anomalous situation of commoners holding important lands and estates traditionally associated with lordship.
• Closely connected to a reigning monarch (including many royal mistresses)
• Created to honor a relative, including:
  • As a posthumous honor for a dead husband, often one who would have received a peerage if he had not died
  • To honor a husband who was living, but could not or would not accept a peerage in his own right
  • To confer nobility upon the peeress's children, again often in recognition of the achievement of a husband

The peerages are listed chronologically, divided by the monarch who created them.