Peerage of Ireland in the context of Baron Digby

The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain. New peers continued to be created in the Peerage of Ireland until 1898 (the last creation was the Barony of Curzon of Kedleston).

The House of Lords Act 1999 reformed the House of Lords. Until then, all peers of the United Kingdom were automatically members of the House of Lords. However, from that date, most of the hereditary peers ceased to be members, whereas the life peers retained their seats. All hereditary peers of the first creation (i.e. those for whom a peerage was originally created, as opposed to those who inherited a peerage), and all surviving hereditary peers who had served as Leader of the House of Lords, were offered a life peerage to allow them to continue to sit in the House, should they wish.

George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (/ˈbɔːltɪmɔːr/; 1580 – 15 April 1632) was an English politician. He achieved domestic political success as a member of parliament and later Secretary of State under King James I. He lost much of his political power after his support for a failed marriage alliance between Prince Charles and the Spanish House of Habsburg royal family. Rather than continue in politics, he resigned all of his political offices in 1625 except for his position on the Privy Council and declared his Catholicism publicly. He was created Baron Baltimore in the Peerage of Ireland upon his resignation. Baltimore Manor was located in County Longford, Ireland.

Calvert took an interest in the British colonization of the Americas, at first for commercial reasons and later to create a refuge for persecuted Irish and English Catholics. He became the proprietor of Avalon, the first sustained English settlement on the southeastern peninsula on the island of Newfoundland (off the eastern coast of modern Canada). Discouraged by its cold and sometimes inhospitable climate and the sufferings of the settlers, he looked for a more suitable spot further south and sought a new royal charter to settle the region, which would become the state of Maryland. Calvert died five weeks before the new Charter was sealed, leaving the settlement of the Maryland colony to his son Cecil. His second son Leonard Calvert was the first colonial governor of the Province of Maryland.

Under the reforms of the House of Lords Act 1999, the majority of hereditary peers lost the right to sit as members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 2 of the Act, however, provides an exception from this general exclusion of membership for up to 92 hereditary peers: 90 to be elected by the House, as well as the holders of two royal offices, the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain, who sit as ex officio members. The initial cohort of excepted hereditary peers were elected in the 1999 House of Lords elections. Between 1999 and November 2002, vacancies among this group were filled by runners-up in the 1999 election. Since then, by-elections to the House of Lords have filled vacancies.

Candidature for both the 1999 elections and subsequent by-elections is restricted to peers in the Peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Peers in the Peerage of Ireland are only eligible for election if they hold a title in one of the other peerages, but if successful may use their Irish peerage title as a member of the House. The electorates are either the whole membership of the House of Lords (including life peers), or a party group of sitting hereditary peers. A standing order of the House, approved prior to the commencement of the House of Lords Act 1999, mandates that the 90 elected hereditary peers consist of:

The Parliament of Ireland (Irish: Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Lords were members of the Irish peerage ('lords temporal') and bishops ('lords spiritual'; after the Reformation, Church of Ireland bishops). The Commons was directly elected, albeit on a very restricted franchise. Parliaments met at various places in Leinster and Munster, but latterly always in Dublin: in Christ Church Cathedral (15th century), Dublin Castle (to 1649), Chichester House (1661–1727), the Blue Coat School (1729–31), and finally a purpose-built Parliament House on College Green.

The main purpose of parliament was to approve taxes that were then levied by and for the Dublin Castle administration. Those who would pay the bulk of taxation, namely the clergy, merchants, and landowners, also comprised the members. Only the "English of Ireland" were represented until the first Gaelic lords were summoned during the 16th-century Tudor reconquest. Under Poynings' Law of 1495, all Acts of Parliament had to be pre-approved by the Irish Privy Council and English Privy Council. Parliament supported the Irish Reformation and Catholics were excluded from membership and voting in penal times. The Constitution of 1782 amended Poynings' Law to allow the Irish Parliament to initiate legislation. Catholics were re-enfranchised under the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793.

Duke of Clarence and St Andrews was a title created in 1789 in the Peerage of Great Britain for Prince William Henry (later King William IV). He was also created Earl of Munster in the Peerage of Ireland at the same time.

While there had been several creations of Dukes of Clarence (and there was later a Duke of Clarence and Avondale), the only creation of a Duke of Clarence and St Andrews was for Prince William, third son of King George III. When William succeeded his elder brother George IV to the throne in 1830, the dukedom merged in the crown. The title refers to ancient castle and honour of Clare, Suffolk; and the Scottish city of St Andrews.

The hereditary peers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of October 2025, there are 799 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes, of which the Duke of Edinburgh is a life peerage, the holder being a hereditary earl), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary titles).

As a result of the Peerage Act 1963, all peers except those in the peerage of Ireland were entitled to sit in the House of Lords. Since the House of Lords Act 1999 came into force only 92 hereditary peers, elected from all hereditary peers, are permitted to do so, unless they are also life peers. Peers are called to the House of Lords with a writ of summons.

The Irish nobility could be described as including persons who do, or historically did, fall into one or more of the following categories of nobility:

• Gaelic nobility of Ireland: descendants in the male line of at least one historical grade of king (Rí).
• Hiberno-Norman or Old English (Ireland) nobility: descendants of the colonisers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy and England after the Norman invasions of England and Ireland in 1066 and 1169–71, respectively.
• Peerage of Ireland, whose titles were created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland.

These groups are not mutually exclusive. There is some overlap between the first two groups (prior to the Treaty of Limerick), and a lesser degree of overlap between the last two groups (prior to independence from the United Kingdom). Such overlaps may be personal (e.g. a Gaelic noble who was "regranted" his titles by King Henry VIII of England), or they may be geographical (i.e. different noble traditions co-existing in neighbouring parts of the country, which were only distinguished by the date when they finally fell under the Dublin Castle administration).

The Gaelic nobility of Ireland is one of three groups of Irish nobility, along with those nobles descended from the Hiberno-Normans and those granted titles of nobility in the Peerage of Ireland.

Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore, County Longford, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1625 and ended in 1771, upon the death of its sixth-generation male heir, aged 40. Holders of the title were usually known as Lord Baltimore.

The Irish House of Lords was the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from medieval times until the end of 1800. It was also the final court of appeal of the Kingdom of Ireland.

It was modelled on the House of Lords of England, with members of the Peerage of Ireland sitting in the Irish Lords, just as members of the Peerage of England did at Westminster. When the Act of Union 1800 abolished the Irish parliament, a subset of Irish peers sat as Irish representative peers in the House of Lords of the merged Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Earl of Munster is a title that was created twice, once in the Peerage of Ireland and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in 1789 in favour of Prince William, the third son of King George III. He was made Duke of Clarence and St Andrews at the same time. When William succeeded to the throne as King William IV in 1830 the titles merged with the crown.

The second creation came in the Peerage of the United Kingdom on 12 May 1831 for George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, the eldest illegitimate son of William IV. He was made Viscount FitzClarence and Baron Tewkesbury at the same time. The viscountcy was used as a courtesy title by the heir apparent to the earldom. The titles were created with remainder to the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten.

FitzGerald (Irish: Mac Gearailt) is a Hiberno-Norman noble and aristocratic dynasty, originally of Cambro-Norman and Anglo-Norman origin. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century, and are described in the Annals of the Four Masters as having become "more Irish than the Irish themselves" or Gaels, due to assimilation with the native Gaelic aristocratic and popular culture. The dynasty has also been referred to as the Geraldines and Ireland's largest landowners. They achieved power through colonisation and the conquest of large swathes of Irish territory by the sons and grandsons of Gerald de Windsor (c. 1075 – 1135). Gerald de Windsor (Gerald FitzWalter) was the first Castellan of Pembroke Castle in Wales, and became the male progenitor of the FitzMaurice and FitzGerald Dynasty ("fitz", from the Anglo-Norman fils indicating "sons of" Gerald). His father, Baron Walter FitzOther, was the first Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle for William the Conqueror, and was the Lord of 38 manors in England, making the FitzGeralds one of the "service families" on whom the King relied for his survival. Some of its members became the Black Knights, Green Knights and White Knights.

This is a list of the 30 present dukes in the peerages of the Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1927 and after. For a more complete historical listing, including extinct, dormant, abeyant, forfeit dukedoms in addition to these extant ones, see List of dukedoms in the peerages of Britain and Ireland.

This is a list of the 189 present earls in the Peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It does not include extant earldoms which have become merged (either through marriage or elevation) with marquessates or dukedoms and are today only seen as subsidiary titles. For a list including these "hidden" earldoms as well as extinct, dormant, abeyant, and forfeit ones, see List of earldoms.

Earl of Shrewsbury (/ˈʃroʊzbəri/) is a hereditary title of nobility created twice in the Peerage of England. The second earldom dates to 1442. The holder of the Earldom of Shrewsbury also holds the title of Earl of Waterford (1446) in the Peerage of Ireland and Earl Talbot (1784) in the Peerage of Great Britain. Shrewsbury and Waterford are the oldest earldoms in their peerages held by someone with no higher title (the oldest earldoms in each peerage being held by the Duke of Norfolk and Duke of Leinster), and as such the Earl of Shrewsbury is sometimes described as the premier earl of England and Ireland.

Duke of Leinster (/ˈlɪnstər/; Irish: Diúc Laighean) is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland since 1691. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produce any revenue for the title-holder.

Currently Duke of Leinster is the premier dukedom in the Peerage of Ireland. The subsidiary titles of the Duke of Leinster are Marquess of Kildare (1761), Earl of Kildare (1316), Earl of Offaly (1761), Viscount Leinster, of Taplow in the County of Buckingham (1747), Baron of Offaly (c. 1193), Baron Offaly (1620) and Baron Kildare, of Kildare in the County of Kildare (1870). The viscounty of Leinster is in the Peerage of Great Britain, the barony of Kildare in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and all other titles in the Peerage of Ireland. The courtesy title of the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Leinster is Marquess of Kildare. The Duke of Leinster is the head of the House of Kildare.

Londonderry Island (Spanish: Isla Londonderry) is an island (UFI -889706) in the Magallanes Region at the western end of the Beagle Channel and Darwin Sound. The island was named by the captain of HMS Beagle, Robert FitzRoy, whose maternal grandfather was The 1st Marquess of Londonderry, an Ulster-Scots peer.

The island is very irregularly shaped. It lies between Fitzroy Bay to the west and Bahía Cook to the east, and between the Pacific Ocean to the south and the Ballenero Channel and O'Brien Channel to the north. Nearby islands include Gilbert Island and Stewart Island to the northwest, O'Brien Island, Chile to the north, and Cook Island (or London Island) and Thompson Island to the east.