They have received an increasing amount of press attention, as more schemes that purport to confer or sell such honorifics are promoted on the internet.
[1] Concern about the use of titles which lack legal standing or a basis in tradition has prompted increased vigilance and denunciation,[1] although under English common law a person may choose to be known by any name they see fit as long as it is not done to "commit fraud or evade an obligation".
[4][5] Where such titles have existed historically, the current bearer may make no claim that its use is pursuant to a hereditary grant to an ancestor by a fount of honor.
Some individuals, associations or corporations purport to grant or transmit a legal or official right to a title, honour, acknowledgement or membership in a self-styled order of chivalry simply in exchange for a payment.
The British peerage includes the titles of (in ascending order) baron, viscount, earl, marquess and duke.
as the UK government allows the usage of Manorial Titles in British passports of the form: "THE HOLDER IS THE LORD OF THE MANOR/LAIRD OF [X]" (brackets added).
22 [9] This means that the Buyer obtains no legal right of or to ownership of the souvenir plot in any event,[8]: s. 50 so the evidence threshold required by HM Passport Office to use the Manorial Title will be unlikely to be met.
Richard Bridgeman, 7th Earl of Bradford, estimates these sellers having an income of US$2,918,520 per acre (about US$7.2 million per hectare) of poor land, which he suggests could probably be purchased for about US$100.
[10] Some of these sellers enclose with the invalid deed a coat of arms; this is not authorised by the Lord Lyon, and so it is unlawful in Scotland to use it.
The most recent advice from the Lord Lyon specifically states that the award of a coat of arms is not appropriate to the owner of a souvenir plot, such as sold in these schemes.
[13] There are three elements to a manor: These three elements may exist separately or be combined; however the lordship of a manor may be held in moieties and may not be subdivided; this is prohibited by the Statute of Quia Emptores 1290, preventing subinfeudation (except in Scotland, where feudal rights resulting from subinfeudation were extinguished only with the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc.
According to John Martin Robinson, Maltravers Herald Extraordinary and co-author of The Oxford Guide to Heraldry, "Lordship of this or that manor is no more a title than Landlord of The Dog and Duck" ("The Dog and Duck" being a stereotypical name for a pub, with "landlord" being the usual term for someone who runs such an establishment).
[16] However, the journal Justice of the Peace & Local Government Law advises that the position is unclear as to whether a lordship of the manor is a title of honour or a dignity, as this is yet to be tested by the courts.
John Selden, in Titles of Honour, wrote in 1672, "The word Baro (Latin for 'baron') hath been also so much communicated, that not only all Lords of Mannors have been from ancient time, and are at this day called sometimes Barons (as in the stile of their Court Barons, which is Curia Baronis, &c. And I have read hors de son Barony in a barr to an Avowry for hors de son fee) But also the Judges of the Exchequer have it from antient time fixed on them.
[19] For this reason, careful legal advice should be sought before entering into any transaction purporting to be selling a lordship of a manor.
The Channel Islands have a long and storied history, with human habitation tracing back thousands of years.
Much like in France, the Channel Islands were organised into a feudal, pyramidal structure - with the King/Duke at the top, seigneurs (lords) in the middle, and residents/serfs at the bottom.
Conveyance requires legal representation, approval by the Royal Court of Guernsey or Jersey, and registration with the Greffier (record keeper).
Article 109 of the 1919 Weimar Constitution declared that "noble ranks are regarded as part of the (sur-)name only".
Claims to sell titles of nobility linked to ownership of a certain estate or castle are based on equally misguided misconceptions.
Most of the parallel claims (usually by Spanish citizens) were made after 1948 when the Consulta Araldica (Italy's heraldic authority) was suspended by the Italian constitution, which abolished recognition of titles of nobility.
With the advent of the republican constitution after the Second World War, Italy decided to include noble titles in the name.
The problem of false claims to szlachta was widespread in the 16th century, Hieronim Nekanda Trepka denouncing such fakes in Liber generationis plebeanorium.
Fiction featuring fake Polish nobility includes: the novels The Idiot,[28] The Green Face[29] and The Whispering City,[30] and the films Roberta (1935)[31] and Victor/Victoria.
Real-life people who falsely claimed to be Polish nobles include: It is unclear whether Irish feudal barony titles are valid.