Charles II. are gone, except only Norfolk and Somerset. Winchester and Worcester (the latter now merged in the dukedom of Beaufort) are the only existing marquessates older than the reign of George III. The earl's coronet was very frequently bestowed under the Henrys and Edwards; it was the favorite distinction, besides being the oldest; and yet of all the earldoms created by the Normans, the Plantagenets, and the Tudors, eleven only remain, and of these, six (Arundel, Wiltshire, Worcester, Bedford, Rutland, and Lincoln) are merged in higher honors, the only ones giving independent designations being Shrewsbury, Derby, Huntingdon, Pembroke, and Devon. The present House of Lords cannot claim among its members a single male descendant of any one of the barons who were chosen to enforce Magna Charta, or of any one of the peers who are known to have fought at Agincourt; and the noble house of Wrottesley is the solitary existing family among the lords which can boast of a male. descent from a founder of the Order of the Garter." Among them, however, are members of the families of Courtenay and Grey.

In deciding the antiquity of families, we are of opinion, with most genealogists, that the direct male line must always be the best. This is the feudal rule, which excluded all females, and in genealogy it is certainly the correct rule, although we do not base our opinion upon the reason given by some one, that it was part of the vassal's duty to keep the secrets of his lord, which a woman could not do. This rule greatly reduces the number of ancient families in the House of Lords. Taking the time when they were first ennobled as the standard, the two oldest there are the Berkeleys, Earls of Berkeley, who were barons by tenure immediately after the Conquest, and the Courtenays, Earls of Devon, who occupied that rank in the twelfth century. The heads of these families were made barons by writ of summons in 1295 and 1299 respectively. The Norman-Irish family of Fitz-Maurice, Marquess of Lansdowne, may probably be ranked next. Under the title of Baron Kerry, it dates from 1181. The Clintons, Dukes of Newcastle, date from 1299, and are the oldest of the ducal houses. Then come the Nevilles, now represented by the Earls of Aberga

venny, the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury, the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, and the families of Manners, Duke of Rutland, Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, Devereux, Viscount Hereford, Grey, Earl of Stamford, St. John, Lord St. John and Viscount Bolingbroke, and Willoughby, Lord Middleton. All these were peers during the Wars of the Roses. With them also rank the great Scotch houses of Douglas, Hamilton, Gordon, Erskine, Hay, Campbell, Bruce, Lindsey, and Graham, and the Irish families of Fitz-Gerald, Butler, De Courcy, De Burgh, and a few others. The families of the great barons of the first century and a half after the Norman Conquest have almost all died out, but they can hardly be regarded as English. The reign of Henry VIII. saw the rise of many great houses, most of whom were enriched by the spoils of the monasteries. Those of Somerset, Herbert, Russell, Seymour, and Paulet then first appeared in the House of Lords. Queen Elizabeth seldom granted peerages, and was parsimonious of all honors. Lord Burghley, however, her Majesty always made an exception. From him descends the powerful house of Cecil, represented by the Marquesses of Salisbury and Exeter. The Cavendishes were not ennobled until 1605, but two branches attained dukedoms before the end of the century. The Gowers, now Dukes of Sutherland, date from 1712, and the Grosvenors, Marquesses of Westminster, reputed to be the richest family in England, were first made peers in 1761. The Byrons appear in Doomsday Book, but Charles I. gave them their barony. He also raised the Feildings to the earldom of Denbigh, and the Quarterly Review remarks, that the first Earl is worthy of notice for two facts, that he was a lineal male descendant of the Imperial Hapsburgs, and that he was the ancestor of "Tom Jones," "two holds upon fame, which like anchors at bow and stern will keep his house's name stable forever."* Sir Henry Vane's son was made Lord Barnard in 1699, and from him descends the Duke of Cleveland. The Howards are the noblest family in Great Britain, but

*The article from which this and one or two other extracts have been made is one by Mr. James Hannay, upon "The Historic Peerage" of Sir Harris Nicolas, in the number for January, 1858. It has also been republished among the other contributions of Mr. Hannay to the Quarterly Review.

a most

not the most ancient. Two things are remarkable about their origin. First, in a period of Norman ascendency, they sprang either from the Danes or the Saxons. It is certain that they are not Norman or French. Secondly, in an eminently martial age, the premier house of England owed its origin to the law. Sir William Howard, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1297 to 1308, is its first known ancestor. His grandson married the heiress of the Mowbrays, Bigods, and Fitz-Alans, and this match made the fortune of his race. The Howards were firm Yorkists, and followed unswervingly the fortunes of the white rose. John Lord Howard was created Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal by Richard III. in 1483, and was killed at Bosworth two years later. His son Thomas, who eventually was restored to the dukedom, as Lord Surrey, was the English commander at Flodden Field. The third Duke of Norfolk, and his son Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the poet, -around whose name such a halo of romance has been thrown, at first were great favorites with Henry VIII., and were both Knights of the Garter at the same time, unusual honor; but they subsequently fell under the displeasure of the jealous monarch, and were attainted and condemned. Surrey was executed, but the death of Henry saved the life of the unhappy father. In the reign of Elizabeth, the fourth Duke aspired to the hand of the imprisoned Queen of Scots, and entered into a conspiracy to release her. For this he was attainted and beheaded. The dukedom and the office of hereditary Earl Marshal were restored to his descendant in 1660, and have been regularly transmitted to Henry, the eighteenth and present Duke. But it is not alone in the Duke of Norfolk that the Howards flourish. Besides him the Earls of Suffolk, Carlisle, and Effingham, and the untitled Howards of Greystock and Corby, are direct male descendants of Thomas Howard, the second Duke. The Earl of Carlisle and Mr. Howard of Corby descend from "Belted Will Howard," and owe their fortunes to a marriage with the great heiress of the Dacres, in the seventeenth century. Lord Effingham is the representative of the distinguished Admiral of the time of the Armada. It is somewhat singular that these six branches are equally divided between the Roman Catholic and the English

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Churches the Duke of Norfolk and the Greystocks and Corbys being of the former communion, and the three Earls of the latter. It must not be supposed that all who bear the name of Howard are descended from this house. There are other families in Great Britain and Ireland named Howard, one represented by the Earl of Wicklow, and some descended from a French refugee family of Ouard, who bear no relationship to the Duke of Norfolk.

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The Seymours now in rank the second family in the realm were a knightly family, of secondary importance, until the marriage of Jane Seymour with Henry VIII., who raised her brother to the Dukedom of Somerset, in 1546. He was subsequently attainted and beheaded, and the title was not restored until 1660. Pride has always marked this distinguished house. Charles, the sixth Duke, commonly called "the proud Duke of Somerset," needs only a passing reference. "He was in truth," says Macaulay, 66 a man in whom the pride of birth and rank amounted almost to a disease." In the patent of the title, precedence was given to the children of the first Duke by his second wife, so that until the issue of these became extinct on the death of Algernon, the seventh Duke, in 1750, the honors did not fall to the elder line. Sir Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy, the representative of this, and the famous politician of the Revolution, showed the family weakness in a manner that greatly astonished William III., when to the remark of the latter, on their first introduction, "I think, Sir Edward, that you are of the family of the Duke of Somerset," he haughtily replied, “Pardon me, sir, the Duke of Somerset is of my family." The Seymours, like the Howards, are Whigs, and the present and twelfth Duke of Somerset is First Lord of the Admiralty in the Palmerston Ministry, and has the reputation of being a man of high administrative ability. The rich Marquess of Hertford represents a younger branch of this family, and, nearly related to him, we may mention Sir Hamilton Seymour, the distinguished diplomatist, formerly Ambassador at St. Petersburg and Vienna.

The Duke of Hamilton, "the head of a house," says Lord Macaulay, "of almost regal dignity," is Premier Peer of

Scotland, and chief of the famous Lowland family of Douglas. This dukedom descended to them in the female line from the Hamiltons in the seventeenth century. In addition to his Scottish honors, the Duke of Hamilton is Duke of Brandon in England, Duke of Chatelherault in France, and a Prince of the old German Empire. On the death of the last Duke of Douglas in 1761, the Hamiltons succeeded to the Marquessate of Douglas and the ancient earldom of Angus, and have since resumed the Douglas name. The estates, however, after the celebrated litigation known as the "great Douglas case," went to the female heirs. Few families in Europe are more renowned than this, and few have a nobler residence than theirs in Hamilton Palace. The present and eleventh Duke, by his marriage with the Princess Stephanie, daughter of the Grand Duke of Baden, is closely allied to the present imperial family of France, and to several reigning sovereigns of Germany.

No families in poetry and romance if even in history — equal the great border houses of Percy of Alnwick and Nevill of Raby. They were near neighbors, closely related, and generally friends, and their influence in the North was supreme. The Percys of history were descended from Josceline of Louvaine, son of Godfrey, Duke of Brabant, who married Agnes De Percy, the daughter and heiress of the last of the Norman barons of Alnwick, and assumed her name. The barony of Percy was conferred upon their descendants in 1299, and the earldom of Northumberland by Richard II. in 1377. Henry, the first Earl, deserted Richard and aided Henry IV. to obtain the throne. Rebelling, in turn, against him, he was slain at Bramham Moor. His son, the gallant Hotspur, had already fallen at Shrewsbury, and his brother, Sir Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, the early companion in arms of the Black Prince, had been beheaded immediately after that battle. Henry, Hotspur's son, and second Earl of Northumberland, was restored to the family titles and estates by Henry V., and was killed at St. Albans. His sons, Thomas and Ralph, perished, the one at Northampton and the other at Hedgeley Moor. Henry, third Earl of Northumberland, was slain at Towton in 1461, and the fourth Earl was killed by a mob at Thirsk in 1483. The fifth Earl was the first who died a natu