[1] The earldom of Coventry was created for the first time in 1623, in the Peerage of England, in favour of George Villiers, 1st Marquess of Buckingham.

In 1697 he was made Viscount Deerhurst, of the hundred of Deerhurst in the County of Gloucester, and Earl of Coventry, with remainder, failing heirs male of his own, to 1) the heirs male of his deceased uncle the Hon.

He was succeeded in the viscountcy and earldom according to the special remainders by his second cousin once removed William Coventry, the fifth Earl.

Lord Coventry was killed in action in the Battle of Wytschaete on 27 May 1940, during the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk.

[2] He was succeeded by his 89-year-old first cousin once removed, the twelfth Earl, the second but eldest surviving son of Colonel the Hon.

He had one daughter but no sons, and the direct male line of descent from the eighth Earl failed upon his death in 2004.

He is one of the sons of Commander Cecil Dick Bluett Coventry and was educated at Prince of Wales School, Nairobi.

In 1965, he married Gillian Frances Randall, by whom he has one daughter, Lady Diana Elizabeth Sherwood Coventry (born 1980).

[3] The heir presumptive is a nephew, David Duncan Sherwood Coventry (born 1973).

Another son from the second marriage of the first Baron, Sir William Coventry (d. 1686), represented Great Yarmouth in the House of Commons and became an influential politician.

John Coventry, a son of the second marriage of the first Baron, sat as Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis.

Thomas Henry Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst (1721–1744), eldest son and heir apparent of the fifth Earl, briefly represented Bridport in Parliament before his premature death.

Croome Court was sold in 1949 and the family moved to the smaller, half-timbered, somewhat confusingly named Earls Croome Court on the estate, while still retaining most of the 15,000 acres (61 km2) Coventry agricultural and forestry estate.