Category:Viscountesses

The title of Viscountess is usually granted as a courtesy title to the wives of a Viscount and is used as a prefix to her Christian name, in the event of a bereavement or a divorce.

There are occasions, when a noblewoman is a Viscountess in her own right. Occasionally, as in the case of the Viscountess Beaconsfield, she receives the hereditary peerage, while her husband is still alive, but quite often, a lady will inherit the peerage, due to a special remainder or suo jure, i.e. Emily, Viscountess Hambleden. These would have been granted to prevent, in the absence of male heirs, the peerage from becoming extinct.