Ad description
A page on the Noble Titles website nobility.co.uk, seen in November 2025, titled “KNIGHTS TEMPLAR TITLES, AMBASSADOR, (of your country) $26,200 (All your children are “The Honourable”)”. The web page included the price £20,000, and information about the Knights Templar.
Text under the subheading “Once a Templar always a Templar” stated “Templar Nobility is by invitation only, it must be proposed and seconded by existing ‘Noble Members’. I am an existing Noble member of the Knights Templars since 1986 (35 years) with permission from the Grand Master himself to offer ‘Templar Nobility’ Titles to men and women of merit and distinction”.
Further text under the subheading “Noble Titles are Authorised Official Petitioners” stated “We can petition on your behalf to acquire the appointment of Ambassador of the Knights Templars […] The Knights Templar have the ability to grant positions through ‘Letters Patent’. The Knights Templars are recognised by the Vatican Rome, Italy”.
Issue
The complainant, who believed that Noble Titles could not issue letters patent or grant legal titles such as “Ambassador of the Knights Templars” and “The Honourable”, challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Response
GJF Baron Nobilis Services Co. Ltd t/a Noble Titles provided a brief history of the Knights Templar. They stated the Knights Templar were made a “religious Order” by the Pope in the twelfth century, and that the Pope granted them the right to grant “Titles of the Order” by letters patent. They stated such titles were not peerages or feudal titles, and that they conformed to the Honours Prevention of Abuses Act (1925).
Noble Titles stated that in the 1990s, the Vatican conducted an investigation which concluded that in the present day, there were only six Knights Templar orders with links to the original twelfth century order, including the Knights Templar in England. They said the Vatican had reached out to the Order by email inviting them to rejoin the church.
Noble Titles stated they had taken legal advice in 2001 regarding the status of the Knights Templar Order. They also stated that in 1997 an investigation had been conducted by Kettering Trading Standards into Manor Titles, the previous trading name of Noble Titles, which resulted in a ruling by the Law Lords, members of the House of Lords which acted as the UK’s highest Court of Appeal until 2009. They no longer had copies of the legal advice or outcome of the trading standards investigation. They said the ad had been removed from their website pending the outcome of the ASA’s investigation.
Assessment
Upheld
The ad included the text “Ambassador” and “All your children are ‘The Honourable’” and stated “We can petition on your behalf to acquire the appointment of Ambassador of the Knights Templars […] The Knights Templar have the ability to grant positions through ‘Letters Patent’”. The ASA considered that consumers would understand from the ad that Noble Titles could grant titles conferring legal status, including “Ambassador” and “The Honourable”, on the purchaser and their children. We considered the statement that “Noble Titles are Authorised Official Petitioners” combined with the stated purchase price of £20,000, which consumers were likely to regard as exceptionally high, implied that Noble Titles were, or worked in partnership with, a recognised authority with the power to grant such titles, rather than providing private or purely ceremonial titles. We therefore expected to see evidence that this was the case.
However, we had not seen any evidence that Noble Titles could confer titles that gave consumers legal rights or status. We understood that letters patent was a legal document authorised by the monarch which could be used to make public appointments or confer honours. We had not been provided with any evidence that suggested that Noble Titles or their associates were able to grant letters patent, or that the Knights Templar organisation referred to in the ad was recognised by, or had been invited to rejoin, the Vatican church. We noted that Noble Titles stated they had engaged with Trading Standards regarding a similar issue in 1997 which resulted in a Law Lord ruling, and had previously obtained legal advice. As we had not been provided with copies of these documents, we were unable to assess them or accept them in support of the advertiser’s claims.
Because the ad implied that Noble Titles had the authority to grant legal titles when we had not seen evidence to demonstrate that was the case, we concluded it was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told GJF Baron Nobilis Services Co. Ltd t/a Noble Titles not to state or imply that consumers could purchase a legal or officially recognised title through their services if that was not the case.
