Titled Relatives

[Kit]

OH has some rather wealthy, albeit distant, relatives.

They are known as Earls, Viscounts etc.

My question is if a woman married a Earl and therefore becomes a Countess does she remain a Countess and he dies and someone else inherits the Earldom?

I've seen one lady referred to as a Dowager Countess but her son had the title. If the heir has to be worked out as the Earl had no sons, does the Countess still become a Dowager?

I thought titles would be interesting but they are a bit of a pain. Some lose their surname and gain a title, others just become the title, or part of the title, yet others becomeaverylongnamewhichancestryandfmpdon'tpickupw ell.

So far I thought the connection, but not relationship, to the Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the Rime of the Ancient Mariner was more interesting but my heathen OH had no idea what I was talking about.

[Jill]

On her husband's death she becomes the Dowager Countess and has that title for life, regardless of whoever becomes the new Countess.

[Merry]

…...unless she remarries, in which case, the first sentence here:

http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/online/content/index31.htm

[Jill]

Yes, I forgot about remarriage!

[Kit]

Thank you. That makes sense.

So Fergie is technically not really the Duchess of York.

[kiterunner]

Thank you. That makes sense.

So Fergie is technically not really the Duchess of York.

Wikipedia says she is "Duchess of York" without the word "the" since the divorce:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah,_Duchess_of_York#Separation_and_divorce

[Kit]

Thanks Kate. So confusing. Howevr if the tabloids here are correct, haha, she will be getting the 'The' back again shortly as they are eloping to Mexico.

I can't decide why the magazine decided on Mexico, that seems more unlikely than the elopement, but maybe that is just me.