Nobility
that distinction of rank in civil society which raises a man above the condition of the mass of the people.
The ancient Romans were divided into nobiles and ignobiles, a distinction at first corresponding to that of patricians and plebeians. A new nobility afterward sprang out of the plebeian order, and obtained (336 B. c.) the right to rise to high offices in the state; and in course of time the descendants of those who had filled curule magistracies inherited the jus imaginum, or right of having images of their ancestors-a privilege which, like the coat-of-arms in later ages, was considered the criterion of nobility. The man entitled to have his own image was a novus homo, while the ignobilis could neither have his ancestor's image nor his own.
The origin of the feudal aristocracy of Europe is in part connected with the accidents which influenced the division of conquered lands among the leaders and warriors of the nations that overthrew the Roman empire, and is outlined in the article FEUDAL SYSTEM; and the evolution of the dignities of baron, count, earl, marquis, duke, and other ranks will be found under those several heads. In the subinfeudations of the greater nobility, originated a secondary sort of nobility under the name of vavasors, castellans, and lesser barons; and a third order below them comprised vassals, whose tenure, by the military obligations known in England as knight's service, admitted them within the ranks of the aristocracy. In France the allegiance of the lesser nobles to their intermediary lord long continued a reality; in England, on the other hand, William the Conqueror obliged not only his barons who held in chief of the crown, but their vassals also, to take an oath of fealty to himself; and his successors altogether abolished subinfeudation. The military military tenant, who held but a portion of a knight's fee, participated in all the privileges of nobility, and an impassable barrier existed between his order and the common people. Over continental Europe in general the nobles, greater and lesser, were in use, after the 10th century, to assume a territorial name from their castles or the principal town or village on their demesne; hence the prefix "de," or its German equivalent "von," still considered over a great part of the Continent as the criterion of nobility or gentility.
After the introduction of HERALDRY (q. v.), and its reduction to a system, the possession of a coat-of-arms was a recognized distinction between the noble and the plebeian. On the Continent who- NOBILITY ever has a shield of arms is a nobleman; and in every country of continental Europe a grant of arms, or letters of nobility, is conferred on all such a noble's descendants. In England, on the other hand, the words noble and nobility are restricted to the five ranks of the peerage constituting the greater nobility, and to the head of the family, to whom alone the title belongs. Gentility, in its more strict sense, corresponds to the nobility of continental countries.
The higher nobility, or nobility in the exclusive sense, of England consist of the five temporal ranks of the peerageduke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, who are members of the Upper House of Parliament. Archbishops and bishops are lords temporal, but not peers. The dignity of the peerage is hereditary, but in early times was territorial, the dignity originally being attached to the possession of lands held directly from the crown in return for services to be performed to the sovereign. Later, peers were created by writ of summons to attend the king's council or parliament, but now the creation of a new peer is always made by letters-patent from the crown. In order to the efficient carrying out of the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords there are now a limited number of life peers, styled Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. By the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, as amended 1887, it is enacted that every such lord, unless he is otherwise entitled to sit in the House of Lords, shall by virtue and according to the date of his appointment be entitled during his life to rank as a baron, and shall be entitled to a writ of summons to attend and to sit and vote in the House of Lords. But his dignity is not to descend to his heirs. A peerage is forfeited by attainder for high treason; attainder for felony forfeits a peerage by writ, not by patent; on attainder, peerage cannot be restored by the crown, only by an act of Parliament. Ladies may be peeresses in their own right, either by creation or by inheritance.
The wives of peers are also styled peeresses.
In France a limited body of the higher nobility, styled the peers, were in the enjoyment of privileges not possessed by the rest. The title of duke was subject to strict rule, but many titles of marquis and count, believed to be pure assumptions, were recognized by the courtesy of society. The head of a noble family often assumed at his own hand the title of marquis; and if an estate was purchased which had belonged to a titled family the purchaser was in the habit of transferring to him- NOBLE self the honors possessed by his predecessor-a practice to which Louis XV. put a stop. Immediately before the Revolution 80,000 families claimed nobility, many of them of obscure station, and less than 3,000 of ancient lineage.
Nobles and clergy together possessed two-thirds of the land. Practically, the estimation in which a member of the French nobility was held depended not so much on the degree of his title as on its antiquity, and the distinction of those who had borne it. The higher titles of nobility were not borne by all members of a family; each son assumed a title from one of the family estatesa custom productive of no small confusion. Unlike "roturier" lands, which divided among all the children equally, noble fiefs went to the eldest son. The Revolution overthrew all distinction of ranks. A new nobility was created by the Emperor Napoleon I. in 1808, with titles descending to the eldest son. The old nobility was again revived at the Restoration.
The aristocracy of Venice had its origin in commerce; and, though untitled, they were among the most distinguished class of nobles in Europe. On the other hand, in Florence, in the 14th century, under constitution purely mercantile, nobility became a disqualification from holding any office of the state. a The nobility of Spain boasts of a special antiquity and purity of blood, a descent from warriors and conquerors alone. Hidalgo, in Spanish, is a term implying gentility or nobility; the hidalgo alone has in strictness a right to the title "Don," which has latterly been used by persons who have no proper claim to it about as extensively as "Esquire" in England. The higher nobility are styled grandees; the class of nobility below them are called Titulados.
In the United States the National Constitution declares (Art. I., Sec. 9), “No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress, congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State." Congress sparingly gives its consent for a person in the service of the government to accept a decoration or other mark of honor from another government.
Private citizens are under no constitutional restrictions.