When reading romance novels about English gentry and nobility I always wonder about the rankings. I know diddlysquat about this subject, mostly because I am American. I decided to do some digging to see if I could sort the matter out. Luckily there are a lot of resources on the matter.

The first thing I was determined to find out was the order of the rankings. I always thought an Earl was as noble as a Duke or fairly similar. An Earl is far less substantial than you might think. In fact they seem to be quite plentiful; perhaps that is why so many romance novels include an Earl. A Marquis, on the other hand was more substantial than I gave credit. For some reason, I always assumed it was on similar footing as a Viscount. Whoops– social faux pas, anyone?

The order of rank is as follows:

1. Duke/Duchess
2. Marquis (alternative spelling: Marquess)/Marchioness
3. Earl/Countess
4. Viscount/Viscountess
5. Baron/Baroness

Baronets and Knights are not peers. A baronet is a hereditary knight. The title of Sir goes down through the generations. His wife is referred to as Lady.

The rarest rank of nobility is the Duke with his dukedom, making Barons by their rank far more abundant.

About the only thing I got right was the order of the Viscounts and Barons.

Did you know there were several peerages?

The isles of Britain and Ireland had in total five different peerages. Those of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom! No wonder the country has so many names in history! Also, a noble man could belong to more than one peerage!

Labels of Address (loosely):

This doesn’t include salutations of correspondence. The first bit is how to do the introduction on the different levels of nobility followed by how to address them in formal speech.

• Duke/Duchess: His Grace/Her Grace (insert title); His Grace/Her Grace
• Marquis/Marchioness: Most Honorable (insert title); Lord/Lady
• Earl/Countess: Right Honorable (insert title); Lord/Lady
• Viscount/Viscountess: Right Honorable (insert title); Lord/Lady
• Baron/Baroness: Right Honorable (insert title); Lord/Lady

Originally posted 2008-08-07 05:39:59. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Book three of the Pleasures Trilogy staring plump little Gabrielle from India and Erskine (Quill) Dewland soon to be Viscount Dewland. Right off the bat, this was my kind of book and I loved reading every word. I’ll tell you why:

First, the alpha male is one of those wounded and brooding alphas. Quill was hurt from a horse riding accident that left him scarred. He walks with a slight limp most of the time but when tired it is more pronounced. He can’t dance. Repetitive motions cause him intense migraines and this includes riding horses but more importantly intercourse. As alpha males goes, Quill is decidedly masculine. He likes women – he just doesn’t know if they’re worth the three day recuperation.

Second, this story also involves one male character basically stealing the bride out from another man’s nose. This doesn’t always go well for me, but in this case it was just icing. Upon learning that his son was practically incapable of siring progeny, the elder Viscount Dewland orders his second son Peter to take the heiress sight unseen as his bride. Peter doesn’t want to marry, positively shrinks back from the idea, but eventually under pressure agrees. To his dismay, Gabrielle is the antitheses of beauty, grace, and lacks the instinct to navigate smoothly with society’s haut ton.

Third, Gabrielle is a completely charming heroine. She is as gabby as her nickname implies and loves to talk. Gabby is protective, open, loving, kind, and sharp. She is smart enough to keep her half-brother safe from harm. She also knows that Peter finds her a great disappointment. Despite knowing from experience with her father in India, is determined to do her best to please Peter so that he will fall in love with her. This makes her equally stubborn.

She makes friends early with the Duchess of Gisle who has just returned from her honeymoon on the continent. They meet at the dressmakers. Peter has brought her there to clothe her properly so she won’t shame him in public and prays the Madam will be able to transform his ugly duckling of a future wife.

Quill of course, thinks his younger brother is nuts. In fact most of the men in the ton that have seen luscious Gabby agree with Quill. They congratulate (quite crudely) Peter on his good fortune to snare such a well endowed beauty who will surely be a hellcat in bed. They think it’s doubly clever of Peter that she is an heiress.

When Gabby laughs her way into one social scandal, Peter is determined to throw her over but doesn’t know how. Quill gladly informs his brother that he will marry Gabby and happily. Of course, he’s worried about what she’ll think of him later, but Quill can hardly bring himself to care about his own problems. He burns for her and is happy around her. This is enough for him. His only true concern is will it be enough for Gabby?

Rating: 5 Stars

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Guilty Pleasures by Laura Lee Guhrke is the tale of Lady Viola’s brother and his duchess-to-be. Technically Guilty Pleasures is a prequel to The Marriage Bed where Viola and her husband John patch up their estranged marriage. On a whole this novel was much better than the Marriage Bed, but because I read the Marriage Bed first I was biased against this book from the beginning. Now before I started reading, I had no idea of Guilty Pleasures relation to the other novel, the backs of the novels do not give very much information. I picked both of them up in the store because their covers were wonderfully designed and drew me to them. It’s too bad really.

So why am I prejudice against the book from the beginning? Daphne, happily married by the time Marriage Bed takes place, tells Viola some very negative things about her character and how it’s possible that Viola was nearly wholly responsible for the estrangement between John and herself. Daphne is on John’s side because she was poor and in desperate straights herself once. Honestly, I never really picked up on that at all in Guilty Pleasures. The novel started with Daphne having already secured a position and working five months at Tremore Hall under Anthony. If I don’t like a heroine the novel goes downhill fast for me. I didn’t like Daphne in Marriage Bed and I saw no reason to like her now.

It’s too bad because I always liked Anthony from both MB and GP. He’s an antiquarian and loves his history, hates evicting tenets and always has some way to allow them to stay while giving them self-worth, doesn’t abuse his power over his female servants and employees, and champions his sister. He is hero worthy without a doubt. Of course his noble actions avoiding thinking of his female workers cause all the havoc in this story.

Daphne loved to spy on Anthony when he was shirtless and working outdoors excavating. Who wouldn’t? When Viola comes to call on her brother, Daphne becomes Viola’s number one choice for her brother to marry and cleverly sets them up. Daphne overhears a conversation between the siblings where Anthony describes her as a stick bug on a twig, a machine, and unlikely to marry. Just goes to show him later that he never should have opened his mouth, doesn’t it? Having heard, Daphne decides to accept Viola’s offer to help bring her out into society which makes Anthony panic as he’ll be losing his best employee on the dig.

He devises ways to make her stay; she makes him fall in love with her. Overall a cute tale, but one I couldn’t really get into because of Daphne.

Rating: 2.5 Stars.

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