Can a person buy a title and became a noble?
The only titles which can be bought legally in Europe are Scottish baronial titles. These feudal titles are eligible for purchase and can change hands by contract between ordinary citizens. Further, these titles confer heraldic privileges and precedence. Peerage titles are created by the Crown unlike manor titles which can be bought from a previous owner or from a firm specializing in the selling of these feudal titles. (Often, the sale of feudal titles are held at auctions to the highest bidder.) The purchase of a ‘lord of the manor’ title does not make one a nobleman because it is not a peerage title. It is a feudal title only, although it might carry some historic association. It does not confer any status, nobiliary rights or privileges. Possession of such a title (or even a coat of arms) does not make one a noble, although it does in Scotland. There isn’t anything wrong with buying or selling lordships of the manors, but it is wrong to refer to them as “British titles”. The holder
