ABSTRACT
Aristocracies are particularly fond of titles. Where the possession of political and economic power is hereditary, hereditary titles advertise the ascendancy of one class over the others in a most satisfactory way, and neatly define social divisions. In this and the next chapter I will chart the slow elaboration of the use of titles over several centuries in the societies of England and its neighbours as a means of identifying its aristocracy to itself (and to us).
