In the late nineteenth century, fewer and fewer traditional landed families in Britain were receiving peerages and becoming accepted into the aristocracy. Peerages were increasingly instead offered to successful businessmen, such as brewers Michael Bass (1837-1909) and Arthur Guinness (1840-1915). This led peerages to be described as what?
Answer: “Beerages”. Later, British prime minister David Lloyd George would be accused of selling peerages in return for political donations. Deeply opposed to the House of Lords, the firebrand Welsh-born politician would have preferred the hereditary upper house to be abolished.
Source: Barricades and Borders – Europe 1800-1914 by Robert Gildea; A History of England by Paul Johnson
More at: History
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