Nobility is a traditional hereditary status that exists today in many countries (usually those which are, or used to be, monarchies). The term originally referred to those who were "known" or "notable" and was applied to the highest social class in premodern societies. In the feudal system (in Europe and elsewhere), the nobility were generally those who held land in exchange for allegiance and service to the King, usually military service. It rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Today, in most countries, "noble status" is a purely honorary dignity that confers no legal privileges; an important exception is the United Kingdom, where certain titles (titles of the peerage), still confer some residual privileges.
Nobility should not be confused with socio-economic status. Being wealthy or influential does not automatically make one a noble, nor are all present-day nobles wealthy and influential (some aristocratic families have lost their fortunes through various means).
Countries without a feudal tradition, such as the United States, do not have a nobility as such. Although the United States, like almost every society, has a privileged 'upper class' with great wealth and power, this does not entail a separate legal status, or different forms of address.
Western nobility
European nobility originated from the feudal/seignorial system that arose in Europe during the Dark Ages. Originally, knights or nobles were mounted warriors who swore allegiance to their sovereign and promised to fight for him in exchange for allocation of land (usually together with serfs living there). During the time period known as the Military Revolution, nobles gradually lost their role of raising and commanding private armies, as many nations created cohesive national armies. This was coupled with a loss of the social-economic power of the nobility, owing to the economic changes of the Renaissance and the growing economic importance of the merchant classes (or bourgeoisie), which increased still further during the Industrial Revolution. In countries where the nobility was the dominant class, the bourgeoisie gradually grew in power; a rich city merchant was more influential than a minor rural nobleman. However, in many countries at this time, the nobility retained great social and political importance; for instance, the UK's government was dominated by the nobility until the nineteenth century.
The nobility of a person might be either inherited or earned. Nobility in its most general and strict sense is an acknowledged preeminence that is hereditary, i.e., legitimate descendants (or all male descendants, in some societies) of nobles are nobles, unless explicitly stripped of the privilege. In this respect, nobility is distinguished from British peerage: the latter can be passed to only a single member of the family. The terms aristocrat and aristocracy are a less formal means to refer to persons belonging to this social milieu. Those lacking a distinct title, such as junior siblings of peers (and perhaps even the children of 'self-made' VIPs) may be considered aristocrats, moving within a small social circle at the apex of a hierarchical social pyramid. Blue blood is an English expression for noble birth or descent. It is a translation of "sangre azul", a Spanish phrase used to differentiate the lighter skinned nobility from their darker skinned Moorish counterparts.
In France, influential high bourgeois, most particularly the members of the parlements (courts of justice), obtained nobility titles from the King. The old nobility of military origin, the noblesse d'épée ("sword nobility") became increasingly irritated by this newer noblesse de robe ("gown nobility"). In the last years of the ancien régime, before the French Revolution, the old nobility, intent on keeping its privileges, had pushed for restrictions of certain offices and orders of chivalry to noblemen who could demonstrate that their family had enough "noble quarterings" (in French, 'quartiers de noblesse'), a reference to a noble's ability to display armorially their descents from armigerous noble forebears in each of their lines of descent to demonstrate that they were descended from old noble families, who bore arms that could be quartered with their own male line arms, and thus prove that they did not derive merely from bourgeois families recently elevated to noble rank. A noble could be asked to provide proof of noble antecedents by showing a genealogy displaying 'seize quartiers' (sixteen quarterings) or even 'trente-deux quartiers' (thirty-two quartering) indicating noble descent on all bloodlines back five generations (to great-great grandparents) or six generations (great-great-great grandparents), respectively. This illustrates the traditional link in many countries between heraldry and nobility; in those countries where heraldry is used, nobles have almost always been armigerous, and have used heraldry to demonstrate their ancestry and family history. (However, it is important to note that heraldry has never been restricted to the noble classes in most countries, and being armigerous does not necessarily demonstrate nobility.)
Nobles typically commanded resources, such as food, money, or labor, from common members or nobles of lower rank of their societies, and could exercise religious or political power over them. Also, typically, but not necessarily, nobles were entitled to land property, which was reflected in the title. For example, the title Earl of Chesterfield tells about property, while the title Earl Cairns was created for a surname. However all the above is not universal; quite often nobility was associated only with social respect and certain social privileges. An example of the latter would be Polish szlachta. In the modern age, the notion of inherited nobility with special rights has become, in the Western World, increasingly seen as irrelevant to the modern way of life. The founding fathers of the United States rejected anything that may help in recreating a nobility; the French Revolution abolished the nobility and its special rights (though some nobility titles would be recreated by Napoleon I and III, they were mostly honorific).
A list of noble titles for different European countries can be found at Royal and noble ranks. To learn how to properly address holders of these titles, see Royal and noble styles.
Some con artists also sell fake titles of nobility, often with impressive-looking documents to back them up. These may be illegal, depending on local law.
Italian Nobleman of the Fifteenth Century. From a Playing-card engraved on Copper about 1460 (Cabinet des Estampes, National Library of Paris).
Nobility in non-Western countries
Medieval Japan developed a feudal system similar to the European system, where land was held in exchange for military service. The daimyo class, or hereditary landowning nobles, had great social and political power. Like their European counterparts, they commanded private armies made up of samurai, an elite warrior class. Although there are differences, the daimyo class can be compared to European peers, and the samurai to European knights. Feudal titles and ranks were abolished in Japan with the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Many other non-Western nations, such as China and the Pacific Islands, have had noble or aristocratic classes of various kinds; these are too diverse to discuss in detail. In tribal societies, the system of hereditary chiefs can also be compared to a form of noble class; it is interesting to note that in Tonga, after Tongan contact with Western nations, the traditional system of chiefs developed into a Western-style monarchy with a hereditary class of barons.
Nobility by nation
For full categorized countries, see Category:Nobility by nation; some other follow:
See also
Sources, References and External links
