List of viscountcies in the peerages of Britain and Ireland

This article is a list of viscountcies in the peerages of Britain and Ireland, including the England, the Scotland, the Ireland, the Great Britain and the Peerage of the United Kingdom, listed in order of creation, including extant, extinct and abeyant titles. A viscount is the fourth rank in the peerage of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland and Ireland. A relatively late introduction, holders of the title take precedence after earls and before barons.^{[n 1]}

The term "viscount" (vice-comes) was originally a judicial honorific, long used in Anglo-Norman England to refer to a county sheriff. It was only turned into a noble title, with hereditary dignity, in England by Henry VI in 1440,^[2] following the similar transformation of that title in France.^[3]

The majority of viscountcies are held by peers with higher titles, such as duke, marquess or earl; this can come about for a number of reasons, including the title being created as a subsidiary title at the same time as the higher peerage, the holder being elevated at a later time to a higher peerage or through inheritance when one individual is the heir to two separate titles.^[4]

Viscounts were created in the peerages of England and Scotland until the Act of Union 1707, thereafter being created in the peerage of Great Britain. After the Acts of Union 1800 came into effect in 1801, all peerages were created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland were created by English and British monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. Irish peers were not initially granted a seat in the House of Lords and so allowed the grantee to sit in the House of Commons. Viscounts of Ireland have precedence below peers of England, Scotland, and Great Britain of the same rank, and above peers of the United Kingdom of the same rank; but Irish peers created after 1801 yield to United Kingdom peers of earlier creation.

A number of Speakers of the House of Commons have been elevated to the peerage as viscounts. Of the nineteen Speakers between 1801 and 1983, eleven were made viscounts, five were made barons, one refused a peerage and two died in office (and their widows were created a viscountess and a baroness).^{[n 2]} The last such was George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy upon his retirement in 1983. Since then it has become more common to grant life peerages to retiring Speakers.

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