The Complete Peerage (full title: The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom Extant, Extinct, or Dormant); first edition by George Edward Cokayne, Clarenceux King of Arms; 2nd edition revised by Vicary Gibbs et al.; 3rd edition in progress) is a comprehensive work on the titled aristocracy of the British Isles.
Contents
History
The Complete Peerage was first published in eight volumes between 1887 and 1898 by George Edward Cokayne (G. E. C.).
This version was effectively replaced by a new and enlarged edition between 1910 and 1959, edited successively by Vicary Gibbs (Cokayne's nephew), H. A. (Herbert Arthur) Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Lord Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. The revised edition, published by the St Catherine Press Limited, was in twelve volumes, with volume twelve issued in two parts.
Volume thirteen was issued in 1940, not as part of the alphabetical sequence, but as a supplement covering creations and promotions within the peerage between 1900 and 1938. The leading researcher on the project was Ethel Stokes and the five volumes from 1929 to 1949 acknowledge her major contribution.
The work has been reprinted in a number of formats, most notably by Alan Sutton Publishers who reduced it in size to six volumes in a photographically reduced format. This contains four page images on each smaller page.
It was available on CD. A further reprint in six volumes appeared in 2000, together with Volume 14, which is an appendix, correcting the original publication (1910–1938) and briefly updating it to 1995.
A fully revised and modernised third edition in 18 volumes is due to be published by Alan Sutton Publishing between 2025 and 2027, with an online edition to become available on a subscription basis in 2027.
Volumes
1st edition
All volumes edited by George Cokayne.
2nd edition
Volumes 1–5 have the title Complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant, and volumes 6–13: The complete peerage; or, A history of the House of lords and all its members from the earliest times.