Knight Fever: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

{{quote|'''Hacker:''' What has Sir Arnold to fear, anyway? He's got all the honours he could want, surely.

'''Bernard:''' Well, naturally he has his 'G'.

 

'''[[Blue Blood|Hereditary Peerages]]''' (all titles have female equivalents):

** Parodied by [[Mark Twain]] in the story of ''The Million Pound Banknote'' where the owner of the note becomes so famous that the Times reports his doings above those of "Any duke not royal".

** The Grace bit is mentioned in ''[[Blackadder the Third]]''. Prince George in disguise calls the Duke of Wellington 'My Lord', who then proceeds to correct him with a blow to the head.

** Motion is hereby put that the cartoon character Bartholomew J Simpson be created baronet just so that he gets to sign his name "Sir Bart Bart."

** In [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s Ruddigore, the main character, "The Bad Baronet of Ruddigore," is called a "Bad Bart" by himself and others quite often.

 

'''Knights for Life''' (in most cases - it is possible to get stripped of a knighthood, like Anthony Blunt was when it became known he was one of the Cambridge Five group of Soviet moles or more recently Robert Mugabe for general oppressiveness)

** Judith Anderson was credited as "Dame Judith Anderson" in ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock]]''

** [[Julian Fellowes]] got a full peerage.

* Sell ''a lot'' of computer programs, in the case of William S. Gates III, OBE, former CEO of Microsoft.

* Give the government or governing party a lot of money. Baronetcies were originally always purchased. Even without direct payment, rich people were always more likely to receive any honour, partly because some honours required the holder to live in a certain way (knights, for instance, were originally military officers who had to afford a horse, armor, grooms, servants, etc.) and because poor people wouldn't be able to do any of the things that would bring them to the sovereign's attention. (To be fair, they wouldn't likely be interested in doing any of those things either, since the attitude of the poor of the time was that it was best to keep one's head down and not be noticed.) Officially the grant of titles or honours in exchange for donations to the government, political parties or individuals has been illegal since the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925, which was introduced after a major scandal involving the near-open sale of titles by [[David Lloyd George]]'s Liberal administration. However, there have been strong public and media suspicions about the number of party donors who have been granted honours by both Labour and Conservative governments in the last thirty years or so. Pissing away vast quantities of money, oddly enough, can work (Sir Fred Goodwin), [http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/goodwin-knighthood-decision but only temporarily.]

* Have an ancestor who signed on with the right faction in a [[Succession Crisis]].

* Have an ancestor who was a rich commoner when there were [[Wars of the Roses|no nobles left alive]] to compete for disputed estates.

* By being the King's drinking buddy. Charles II handed them out like candy. The Georges weren't much better, except that with George III they were more like tea-drinking buddies.

* Be eaten by a King who really likes his steak (according to an unlikely but charming legend, one King was impressed enough with his meal to dub it ''Sir'' loin).

 

{{examples}}

* Any number of the [[King Arthur|Knights of the Round Table]].

 

* Jack Ryan from the [[Tom Clancy]] books.

* [[Flashman|Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE]].

* Commander [[James Bond]] CMG, RNVR.

** He is offered a knighthood at the end of the novel of ''[[The Man with the Golden Gun]]'' - he declines.

* [[Sherlock Holmes]] declined a knighthood after a [[Noodle Incident]], mentioned in "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs".

** In the BBC television adaption, Sherlock makes a comment that the government "threatened me with a knighthood. Again." after he solves a serial murder case.

* [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] is second son of the 15th Duke of Denver. His brother is the 16th Duke, his brother's wife is the Duchess of Denver, their son is the Viscount St George (a courtesy title), and his mother is referred to as the Dowager Duchess. Wimsey's "Lord" is properly a "style", not a title of any kind. (Word of God has it that Lord St.George joined the RAF in WWII and was killed, and that Peter became the 17th Duke; presumably his son Bredon is now the 18th Duke, although he'd be rather old.)

* [[Inspector Lynley|Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, Lord Asherton]] (he's the eighth Earl of Asherton).

** His wife Helen {{spoiler|was}} Helen Lynley, Lady Asherton (and can also be referred to as the Countess of Asherton).

* [[Honor Harrington]] got the title of Duchess to give her enough local status to attend parties on her homeworld at roughly the level that she would at an allied planet where she [[Going Native|went native]] and which had a different system. She very much earned the title of Dame in battle. White Haven is her husband's estate toward the end of her career. All that is relevant as the Manticoran aristocracy resembles the British one except in the time of writing it still has political teeth (that is a noble can serve on cabinet, and resigning from the Lords to run in Commons was an interesting gambit but not a politically necessary one as it is in [[Real Life]] Britain).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Useful Notes/Britain]]

[[Category:Sir Index of Tropes]]

[[Category:Just for Pun]]