Peers of Scotland

Peers Of Scotland

The Peerage of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Moraireachd na h-Alba, Scots: Maikage o Scotland) is the division of the British Peerage for those peers created in the Kingdom of Scotland before 1707. With that year's Act of Union, the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England were combined into the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a new Peerage of Great Britain was introduced in which subsequent titles were granted.

After the Union, the old Scottish Peers elected 16 representative peers to sit in the House of Lords. The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish Peers to sit in the House of Lords, a right which was lost along with all other hereditary peers after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999. Unlike most other peerage titles, many Scottish titles can pass through female lines, and in the case of daughters only, these pass to the eldest daughter rather than go into abeyance. Unlike other British peerages, Scottish peerages can be inherited by or through a person who was not legitimate at birth provided that his parents married later.

The ranks of the Scottish Peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Lord of Parliament (lord baron). Scottish Viscounts differ from those of the other Peerages (of England, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom) in using of in their title, as in Viscount of Oxfuird. Though this is the theoretical form, most Viscounts drop the "of". The Viscount of Arbuthnott and to a lesser extent the Viscount of Oxfuird still actively use of. Scottish Peers had the right to sit in the Parliament of Scotland.

Scottish Barons rank below Lords of Parliament, and, while noble, are not conventionally considered peerage titles; unlike others, the title can be bought and sold.

In the following table of the Peerage of Scotland as it currently stands, each peer's highest titles in each of the other Peerages (if any) are also listed.