Titled Relatives
 

OH has some rather wealthy, albeit distant, relatives.

They are known as Earls, Viscounts etc.

My question is if a woman married a Earl and therefore becomes a Countess does she remain a Countess and he dies and someone else inherits the Earldom?

I've seen one lady referred to as a Dowager Countess but her son had the title. If the heir has to be worked out as the Earl had no sons, does the Countess still become a Dowager?

I thought titles would be interesting but they are a bit of a pain. Some lose their surname and gain a title, others just become the title, or part of the title, yet others becomeaverylongnamewhichancestryandfmpdon'tpickupw ell.

So far I thought the connection, but not relationship, to the Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the Rime of the Ancient Mariner was more interesting but my heathen OH had no idea what I was talking about.

On her husband's death she becomes the Dowager Countess and has that title for life, regardless of whoever becomes the new Countess.

…...unless she remarries, in which case, the first sentence here:

http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/on...nt/index31.htm

Yes, I forgot about remarriage!

Thank you. That makes sense.

So Fergie is technically not really the Duchess of York.

Wikipedia says she is "Duchess of York" without the word "the" since the divorce:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah,...on_and_divorce

Thanks Kate. So confusing. Howevr if the tabloids here are correct, haha, she will be getting the 'The' back again shortly as they are eloping to Mexico.

I can't decide why the magazine decided on Mexico, that seems more unlikely than the elopement, but maybe that is just me.