Lord is a style, not a rank
The most common misunderstanding in British forms of address is that lord is a rank. It is not. It is a style — a form of address — attached to several different positions, some of them peerages, some of them courtesy styles, some of them offices. Two people both correctly called Lord may hold entirely different dignities, and the correct way to write to them differs accordingly.
The peerage of the United Kingdom has five degrees, in descending order: duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron. Every one of them is addressed differently in speech, in the opening of a letter and on an envelope, and the differences are not decorative — they are the practical shorthand by which a correspondent shows they know which office or dignity they are writing to.
In practice, Lord [Title] is the spoken style of a baron, a viscount, an earl and a marquess. A duke is not addressed as Lord: he is Duke, or Your Grace. Beyond the peerage, the style attaches to the younger sons of dukes and marquesses, who are Lord [Forename] [Surname], and to certain offices, including the Lord Mayor, the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice, which are addressed by office rather than by peerage form.
Working out which kind of lord you are addressing
The quickest diagnostic is the shape of the name. Lord followed by a place or surname alone — Lord Ashby, Lord Hartfield — indicates a peer. Lord followed by a forename and surname — Lord Edward Hartfield — indicates the younger son of a duke or marquess holding a courtesy style. The difference matters: shortening Lord Edward Hartfield to Lord Hartfield is a real error, because it promotes him to a peerage he does not hold.
A second diagnostic is the envelope. A peer takes the definite article: The Lord Ashby. A courtesy lord does not: Lord Edward Hartfield. If you are unsure, the House of Lords members' directory resolves peerages, and a current peerage reference resolves courtesy styles.
Speaking to a lord
For a peer, say Lord [Title]. For a courtesy lord, say Lord [Forename] [Surname] on first address and Lord [Forename] thereafter. Neither should be repeated in every sentence; British usage acknowledges a style once and then proceeds.
My Lord belongs to formal registers — the courts, certain parliamentary and ceremonial settings, some institutional occasions — and is not the ordinary social form. Your Lordship is narrower still. Used at a drinks reception, both sound theatrical.
Written correspondence
Open Dear Lord [Title] for a peer and Dear Lord [Forename] for a courtesy lord. Close Yours sincerely. Where the letter is formal and you have no acquaintance with the recipient, My Lord with Yours faithfully is still correct, and remains common in petitions and submissions to peers acting in a parliamentary capacity.
Email has not created a separate set of rules. The salutation is the same; only the length changes. What email has changed is frequency, which makes consistency more visible: if you open Dear Lord Ashby, do not sign off with a bare first name in the same message.
The envelope and invitations
For a peer: The Lord [Title], with The Rt Hon. the Lord [Title] for a Privy Counsellor, and post-nominal letters after the name. For a younger son of a duke or marquess: Lord [Forename] [Surname], with no definite article. A couple is The Lord and Lady [Title], or Lord and Lady [Forename] [Surname] in the courtesy case.
Where a peer holds an office that carries its own form — Lord Mayor, Lord Chancellor, a Lord of Appeal — the office form is used when writing to them in that capacity, and the peerage form is used socially.
Offices, courtesy styles and the House of Lords
Membership of the House of Lords and possession of the style Lord are not the same thing, and they have grown further apart. The Upper House now comprises life peers together with the bishops who sit as Lords Spiritual, and the latter are addressed as bishops and archbishops rather than by peerage forms. Following the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026, a hereditary peerage no longer confers membership of the House by virtue of heredity; the dignities themselves continue, and their holders keep their titles and their forms of address. A great many people correctly styled Lord — courtesy lords, and holders of Scottish feudal or manorial dignities of quite different character — likewise have no seat. Membership is therefore no guide at all to how a person should be addressed.
Lord of the Manor is not a peerage and does not entitle the holder to be addressed as Lord [Surname]. Nor does the purchase of a manorial title, a souvenir plot or a novelty certificate confer any style whatsoever. This is worth stating plainly because the commercial market in such items relies heavily on the ambiguity of a single word.
Context and edge cases
Scottish practice differs in several respects. A Lord of Session is addressed by judicial style; a Lord of Parliament is the Scottish equivalent of a baron, and Scottish feudal barons are styled Baron of [Place] rather than Lord. In Northern Ireland and in Commonwealth realms, local conventions overlay the same basic structure.
The Barony of Brattleby is a title of honour recorded in The London Gazette and historically associated with Brattleby in Lincolnshire; it is not a property, estate or visitor attraction. Honorary and courtesy styles used within the House are described as such on this site, and we do not represent them as substantive peerages.