Category: aristocracy & titles
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A “Baron” By Any Other Name, May Not Be As Correct As One Assumes…
Being a “baron” means a man holds a title of the nobility. In the British system, he is below a viscount (baron, viscount, earl, marquess, duke). In those countries without “viscounts,” a baron is below a “count,” which is the same as an earl in Britain.
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The Enlightenment, Austen, and the Regent
Historians are nothing if not epochal creatures. We divide time into epochs and apply catchy names—The Golden Age, The Dark Ages, the Renaissance, and so on. Some span centuries, some only decades. Their kinship rests in that each marks moments—long or short—when everything changed. Such is the case of that ninety-year revolution we call The…
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What Is a “Dowager”? How Is She Addressed?
Likely, when someone uses the word “Dowager,” images of Dame Maggie Smith’s portrayal of Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham from “Downton Abbey” fame. But what does the word “dowager” mean?
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Does the Picture Match the Box?
I hate puzzles. This goes back to my childhood, to those achievement tests the schools insisted you take. My bane (besides spelling) was spatial relations. Those line drawings that you had to fold into a box mentally were the downfall of my existence. Everything else was excellent. Then there were spatial relations where seventy-five percent…