Baron Audley

The peerage title of Baron Audley was first created, on 8 January 1313, by writ to the Parliament of England, for Sir Nicholas Audley of Heighley Castle, a member of the Anglo-Norman Audley family of Staffordshire.

The third Baron, the last of the senior Audley line, died without issue in 1391, when the barony fell into abeyance; it was revived in 1408 for the descendants of his sister Joanne Audley, and her husband, Sir John Tuchet, KG (b. 1327); the 11th Baron Audley was created Earl of Castlehaven and his son, the 2nd Earl, was attainted of felony and executed, forfeiting the ancient English barony but not the Irish earldom. The titles were revived by Act of Parliament in 1678 for his son, James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven, devolving in the same line until the death of John Tuchet, 8th Earl of Castlehaven in 1777, when the earldom became extinct, and the Audley title passed to George Thicknesse-Tuchet as the 19th Baron Audley. In 1997, this hereditary barony again fell into abeyance, and so it remains.

The title of Baron Audley was created a second time on 20 November 1317, again by writ of summons, in favour of Sir Hugh Audley of Stratton Audley, grandson of James Audley of Audley (1220–1272). He married Lady Margaret de Clare, daughter of the Gilbert, Earl of Hertford and Gloucester (of 1218 creation, extinct 1314)). Audley was created Earl of Gloucester in 1337, but upon his death in 1347, the earldom became extinct and the barony fell dormant. His only daughter and heir married Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, thus de jure the barony devolved with the earldom of Stafford until 1521 when Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham was attainted of his noble titles.

Barons Audley (1313)

Co-heiresses: The Hon. Mrs. McKinnon (b. 1946), The Hon. Mrs. Carrington (b. 1948), and The Hon. Amanda Souter (b. 1958), daughters of the 25th Baron.^[2]