and, as "the fountain and source of all dignities cannot hold a dignity from himself", cannot hold a British peerage. Peerages inherited by the Crown, for example those held by the Prince of Wales upon the demise of the monarch, merge with it and can be regranted to a new individual.

Membership in the Peerage is strictly personal and for life (life peerages) though often heritable (hereditary peerages) primarily by agnatic primogeniture