The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-28
BRITISH PEERAGE PAYS HEAVY TOLL
 TORAVAGE OF WAR FOrty-Eight Heirs to Titles Fall In First Eighteen
 Months SIX THREATENED WITH TT O T A l. EXTINCTION Few English Titles Date Further Back Than Charles H Owing to Havoc of Civil Wars-Plans Preserva-
 ton of Historic Houses

1<OldOIi, AdetS N'oPONiehi.i <ANICiiNAOA has been focused on the sacrifice of the British peerage in the war by the death at the front of Lord Desmond Fitzgerald of the Irish Guards, the brother and heir presumptive of the Duke of Leinster. Lord Desmond is the forty-eghth heir to a peerage to fall in the present war and his case is only specially notable from the fact that the peerage which he would have inherited had he lived, is one of the most historic in the United Kingdom. He would have become the premier duke, marquis and earl in Ireland and he would have ineherited one of the few existing peerages that can be traced back without break to the Norman conquest. His elder brother, the Duke of Lenster, is unmarried and in poor health and the succession now devolves on a younger brother, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who a few years ago married Miss Mary Eth eridge a musical comedy actress. There have been many cases in the past in which the musical comedy stage has SUD- piled baronesses and even countesses to the peerage, but Lady Edward Fitzgerald will be the first musical comedy duchess, if her husband lives to inherit. He is also an officer serving at the front, but even if he should fall, the succession in this case is safe, for he has an infant son, born in 1914, who in the natural course of events will one day be Duke of Leinster
 It is not generally realized that the British peerage of today is a compara- lively modern, not to say a mushroom affair. Compared, for il stance, with that of Austria or Italy, or even of Germany, the number of families who can trace their nobility back for more than a few generations is surprisingly small This applies rather to the peerage of England than to those of Scotland and Ireland. There are not more than half a dozen titled families in the English peerage to- day who can trace their descent unbrok ell to the Norman days. There are more in Ireland, and in Scotland, there are many families who can go even farther back as chiefs of clans, although, of course, they cannot claim the Norman titles which their heads hold today.
 DUE TO CIVIL WARS
 The explanation of this lies in Eng lands two great civil wars. Historians have said that the Wars of the Roses extinguished all the noble families of England. This, if course, is an exagger- alton, but it is one of those exaggera- llOIlS llldl eApIcSScS Inc tlul Dcltcl llloll strict accuracy. There are few peers and peeresses. like, for instance, Lord Save and Sele Lord Grey de Ruthyn Baroness Beaumont and Lady Zouche of Baryngworth, who can trace their titles back to Norman times, but if one wants to find Norman blood in any sort of profusiOn one must examine the peerage of Ireland. where the Fitzgeralds, Burkes or De Burghs, Fitzmaurices, Beresfords o,,6 lo1f o nf fhnr orc fo ioc !, trace their descent to the men who came over with Norman William to conquer England and afterwards with Strongbow to establish themselves in Ireland.
 Those who had been spared by the Wars of the Roses fell in the Civil war, were executed by Cromwell, or sought safety in flight to foreign countries, where many of them fell in alien wars in which they had taken service. At any rate an examination of the peerage rolls show that the great majority of the ex- sting peerages today bear dates later than the restoration. Charles II was lav- ish in bestowing peerages on his favorites and their sons, and two of the existing English dulSedoms. that of St. Albans and Beaufort, owe their origin to the frailty of the foundress of the family in Charles IFS day. Ireland and Scotland being out side the area of these civil convulsions escaped and hence the fact of their more ancient nobility.
 Of course the total number of peers to- day is much greater than at the time of either the Wars of the Roses or the Civil war and there is little likelihood of it's being diminished to anything like the same extent by the great European war, but it has suffered severely. It should also be borne in mind that the records of collaterals are more carefully kept than in the old days. and that, therefore. anyone who has the slightest claim. no matter how remote. to inherit a peerage is almost certain to take ad- vantage of it.
 SIX IN JEOPARDY
 So far, however, a dozen peers and 4S heirs to peerages have been killed, and six peerages have been left without heirs, so that in default of the birth of further sons to the existing holder, the peerage will be totally extinguished on their death. The peerages which are thus in jeopardy are as follows:
 Knaresb orough: This is new peerage created in 1905, and the present baron is the first holder. His son, Capt. c. H.