Ranks of Nobility, Explained

Have you ever heard of Prince Charles as the Duke of Cornwall or read the poetry of Lord Byron or simply watched an episode of Downton Abbey that follows the exploits of the Earl of Grantham's family? Well, you may have wondered where these terms come from. of and what these titles mean duke lord earl are all related to the

nobility

the

nobility

was and is a social class with its origins in feudal europe during the middle ages feudalism was a social and political system in which a king of a country bequeathed land and political privileges to nobles in exchange for services to the crown, which usually meant fighting wars.

As time moved into the late medieval and early modern periods, this system became more hierarchical and more complicated, coming to the somewhat confusing system we have today in this video. I will untangle some of these complexities as I explain the

ranks

of nobility. The rings of nobility changed from place to place and changed over time. Some systems were very complex, as in the Holy Roman Empire, whose dizzying geographical and political complexity was reflected in the structure of its nobility, and some systems were simpler, as in the Empire of France, where Napoleon simplified the previously complex system of the ancient regime.

We will use the British system because it is the best known and is still in use to this day. There are five

ranks

in the British system in order of presidents they are duke marquis earl 6th earl and baron each with their own female equivalents in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman conquest in 1066 there was only one rank in the nobility the earl the term earl has two possible origins: coming from Old Norse Ural meaning leader or older men from Anglo-Saxon, which meant basically the same thing, the female equivalent countess gives a clue as to what the rank was called in continental Europe, count yes, like that guy, the count he was the basic noble lord in feudal England who controlled the different counties, yes that's where that land name comes from.

The earls should be called Lord So-and-so and the countesses as ladies of So-and-so. After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror introduced the term baron to the baron in Normandy. meant the same as earl, a representative of the king in different areas of the country, in this case called barony, but during the merger of Anglo-Saxon and Norman societies both terms were used and eventually baron became the rank of nobility below of the count. barons and earls, who were automatically given the title of baron, were often called to the king's council, this tradition eventually evolved into the house of lords, the female equivalent of a baron is a baroness and, if You may well hear barons referred to as barons as - then the correct form of a dress is as with the lord and lady of the earl in the year 1337 the title of duke was introduced into england when the king Edward III gave his son the title of Duke of Cornwall after losing his own title of Duke of Normandy on The term dates back to the Roman Empire and was used in German and French lands after the fall of Rome.

Originally, the title of duke was only held by royalty, but was later expanded, it is the highest rank of nobility and the title is only held by 24 Today, in Britain, duchies traditionally ruled, the female equivalent is duchess and dukes and duchesses are to be known as their grace. These three ranks, duke, earl and barren, are the basic components of the system and the later ranks are derivatives of these, a marquis. It is the second highest rank above count but below duke the term comes from the Germanic march meaning border land, so marquis translates as oral or count of a march.

The word margrave was used in the Germanic lands before it came to England and was introduced by Richard II in 1385, whose brother-in-law was Mar Grave of Brandenburg, the title of marquess was actually quite unpopular in the time after its introduction, many earls felt insulted that the rank was above their own, the reason he gave for his higher rank was because the marquess territory was on the border and therefore strategically more important than a normal county, the female equivalent They are the Martians, they are known as lord and lady and, in some circumstances, as the most honorable so-and-so, lastly we have the sixth count, as the term implies. the name comes from vice-count as vice-president and the office originated as the position of deputy accountant or sheriff of a county, but later became a hereditary rank in the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th century.

She first arrived in England in 1440 and was placed above the rank of baron, the female equivalent is 6th countess, they are known as lord and lady, so those are the five ranks of British peerage again, they differ from other historical structures of nobility in other parts of Europe and when studying those systems. Some questions may arise like why our princes are sometimes placed below dukes and why some countries are not ruled by a king but by a prince or an archduke and wait, what is an archduke anyway and what is a baronet? Well, those kinds of questions will have to wait for someone else. day, thanks for watching, okay, a baronet is like a hereditary knighthood, it's in the British system, but it's not considered noble anyway, thanks for watching my video on peerage, please subscribe if you haven't given me a thumbs up yet like the video, if you liked it comment, let me know what you think, check out some of my other videos if you want to learn more, bye.