Ranking Royalty

A few years ago, I toured the Cotswolds in England - a journey that let me bask in the footsteps of history - history that I've always enjoyed reading about. Grand tales of kings and queens and a host of titled folk - but keeping the titles straight was not so easy.

Our tour guide passed along this mnemonic device that English school children learn to remember who outranks whom.

King, Queen and Prince (Princess) are the highest rank but after them comes:

Does - Duke (Duchess)
Mary - Marquess (Marchioness)
Ever - Earl (Countess)
Visit  - Viscount (Viscountess)
Bill - Barron (Barroness)

I hope this little rhyme helps.

I also spent a wonderful afternoon at the Tower of London. This is the view from the Beauchamp Tower looking down on the courtyard.