Marquis and Marquess

Like a duke, and most other peers, the title of Marquis—later called Marquess—is also attached to a place. Instead of giving it a French pronunciation such as markee, the British mutilated it to be pronounced markwees or markwess (depending on who you believe). I don’t know, the new spelling if Marquess looks feminine to me but hey, I’m just a stupid American middle class author and history geek. Anyway, Marquis (my preferred spelling—more manly, don't you think?) is the newest of the titles. Earl and Baron have been around since the Middle Ages. Other titles like earl and viscount sprang up as time went on. I don’t know, maybe one king decided to create something new for a favored warrior. At any rate, Marquis is the newest one, and it ranks just below Duke in the pecking order.

Let’s say the Marquis’s name is Richard (don't you just love that name?) Harrington, and his title is the Marquis of Largeplace. To formally announce a duke or to address him on correspondence, one would use The Most Honorable Marquis of Largeplace. When speaking to a Marquis, one says, “My Lord Marquis” or merely “My Lord.”

The wife of a Marquis is a Marchioness, and her correspondence would come to The Most Honorable Lady Largeplace. In conversation, she’d be “Lady Largeplace,” or “My Lady,” or even simpler, “Madam.”

The eldest son likely had the honorary title of Earl so he’d be called “The Earl of Nextplace,” or “Lord Nextplace,” or “My Lord.”

Younger sons were called “Lord Firstname Largeplace,” or “Lord Firstname,” but never “My Lord.”

Daughters regardless of birth order were all Lady Firstname, or The Lady Firstname. When a daughter of a marquis marries a peer or the heir to a duke or marquis, she takes her husband’s title (even though her precedence is above his). But when she marries a commoner or a lesser lord, she may choose to keep her title of “Lady Firstname. If she is married to an heir to a peerage, she may only keep this form until her husband inherits, at which time she takes her husband’s, even if it means she moves down slots on the Table of Precedence. To further complicate matters, if she marries the younger son of a marquis, she retains her own precedence, because daughters of a marquis rank one degree higher than younger sons of marquis, and one degree lower than eldest sons of marquis.

It’s enough to make your head spin, isn’t it?