Quote Originally Posted by ohiopiper View Post
Doesn't U.S. law forbid a U.S. citizen from recieving titles from a foreign nation, other than those awarded for work in the arts or humanities? For example, an Ohio man was recently awarded a knighthood from France into an order that bestowes knighthoods based solely upon performance in the performing arts. By contrast, an American, if I am correct, cannot be knighted by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, as it would be a violation of U.S. law.

Or am I wrong? And would not titles of lordship fall under this category?
You are partially correct. The US Constitution prohibits US citizens who are government officeholders from receiving foreign titles without the approval of Congress. Ordinary US citizens can, and do, receive all sorts of foreign honors (or honours, depending on who is handing them out.) I am not aware of Congress doing so lately, not since World War II, when legislation was passed that allowed, I believe, anyone serving in the US armed forces to receive foreign honors.

Americans and other non-UK subjects are not knighted by HM the Queen, but that is a British custom, not American. Instead, they are given honorary knighthoods, as were Rudi Giuliani, Bob Geldorf, and many others.

Quite a few Americans are given knighthoods by the Knights of Malta, a sovereign entity, and papal knighthoods and titles of nobility, the Vatican also being a sovereign state. Or they were. I don't know if the present pope or the last one ennobled anyone. Pope John Paul II broke with tradition and didn't ennoble his own family. At the time he was quoted as saying something like, "They are Polish peasants. They wouldn't know what to do with a title."