Earl of Carrick

The Earldom of Carrick has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of Ireland.

In Scotland, the first creation came circa 1186, when Duncan of Galloway became Earl of Carrick. The principal lands of the Earldom lay in Ayrshire.

Duncan's granddaughter Marjory of Carrick (Margaret), who later held the title in her own right, married Robert de Bruce, who later became 6th Lord of Annandale. Their son, also named Robert and known as "Robert the Bruce", would later rule Scotland as King Robert I, causing the earldom to merge into the Crown. Robert was also created a baron in the Peerage of England by writ of summons in 1295 as Baron Bruce of Anandale; the title became abeyant with the death of his son David II in 1371. Thereafter, successive Kings of Scots re-created the Earldom several times, but made it non-heritable, specifying that the earldom would revert to the Crown upon the death of the holder. Thus several creations ended with a reversion to the crown or with the holder becoming King.

In 1469, the Scots Parliament passed an Act declaring that the eldest son of the King and heir to the throne would hold the Earldom, along with the Dukedom of Rothesay. After the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England, the Dukedom and Earldom have been held by the eldest son and heir of the Kings of England and Scotland, later the Kings of Great Britain, and finally the Kings of the United Kingdom. Compare the Duchy of Cornwall.

In 1628, James VI and I created the Earldom of "Carrick in Orkney" for John Stuart, but the title became extinct at his death.

In 1748 King George II made Somerset Butler, 7th Viscount Ikerrin Earl of Carrick in the Peerage of Ireland. The title Viscount Ikerrin, of Ikerrin in the County of Tipperary, had been created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1629 for Lord Carrick's great-great-great-grandfather Lieutenant-General Sir Pierce Butler. In 1912 the first Earl's great-great-great-grandson, the seventh Earl, was created Baron Butler of Mount Juliet, in the County of Kilkenny, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The titles are currently held by his great-grandson.