As an outsider, the British peerage system is really confusing.

There are princes and dukes and earls and barons.

Some of the titles are hereditary, and some of them are not.

The titles have a hierarchy, but is a Viscount higher or lower in status than a Marquis,

and is a barren higher or lower than an Earl. Learn more about the British

Purage system, how it works and the structure of it all, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. And As an American, the whole peerage system seems odd, or perhaps antiquated is a better word.

For those who are not British, or perhaps at least not from a Commonwealth country, the

peerage is simply the system of titles and nobility in the UK.

Technically speaking, peers of the realm were entitled to sit in the House of Lords.

That was prior to 1999, when reforms were made that limited the number of hereditary seats in the

House of Lords to just 92. Most but not all peers are hereditary positions that are passed

down from generation to generation.

Closely related, but not quite the same thing,

is the system of honors.

This would include the various orders and knighthoods

which are given out on a regular basis.

To understand the entire system,

you have to start at the top because without that

nothing makes sense and that of course would be the monarch. The British monarch is

either a king or a queen. In the British system there is only one type of king.

If you are the king, then you are the monarch.

However, there are three different types of queens,

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