Nobility

Western nobility

Initially nobility descended from chivalry (or warrior class) in the feudal society|feudal stage of the development of a society. 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). The invention of the Musket slowly eliminated the privately owned and operated armies of nobles in feudal societies during the time period of the Military Revolution. 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 may simply refer to the delicate, pale skin favoured within that social circle, which more transparently reveals the blueness of the veins and arteries beneath. Possibly the term may be be an appelation describing prevalent argyria among the upper classes. Argyria is permanent bluish discoloration of the skin caused by ingestion of silver metal, which was widely used in table service and as a medicinal agent. In the modern era, 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. 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. Nobles typically commanded resources, such as food, money, or labor, from commoner|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 obligatory; quite often nobility was associated only with social respect and certain social privileges. An example of the latter would be Poland|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 Napoleon III|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.

Nobility by nation

For full categorized countries, see :Category:Nobility by nation; some other follow:

Armenian nobility

Austrian nobility

Belgian nobility

Bohemian nobility

British honours system

Peerage, an exposition of great detail

Chinese nobility

Dutch Nobility

Ratu|Fijian nobility - the Ratu

French nobility

Graf|German comital titles

Hungarian nobility

Imperial Roman titles

Roman aristocracy and bureaucracy

Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy

Imperial Russia|Imperial Russian nobility

Boyars

Dvoryanstvo|Dvoryans

Korean nobility

Malay titles

Maltese nobility

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth nobility

szlachta

Kazoku|Japanese nobility

Spanish nobility

Swedish nobility

See also

Almanach de Gotha

Aristocracy

Caste (social hierarchy of India)

Ennoblement

Gentleman

Gentry

Heraldry

Peerage

The Military Revolution

''Redorer son blason''

External links

http://www.heraldica.org/topics/odegard/titlefaq.htm

http://www.friesian.com/rank.htm

http://www.heraldica.org/faqs/titel.htm

http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/nobility_faq.html

http://nobility.artsakhworld.com

http://www.maltagenealogy.com

http://www.sardimpex.com/GENEALOGIE DELLE DINASTIE ITALIANE (in Italian, with an introduction in English)

http://www8.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/cgi-bin/stoyan/wwp/LANG=engl/?1 an on-line database of European noble genealogy

http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/gotha.htm

http://www.genealogics.org/index.php

http://www.worldroots.com/

http://www.royaute-noblesse.com

http://societe.org.co.nr/

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-blu1.htmsp. "sangre azul" blue blood