Archduke (butterfly)
The archdukes are a genus, Lexias, of tropical forest-dwelling butterflies that are common throughout Southeast Asia and Australasia. Members of the brush-footed butterfly family Nymphalidae, the genus is represented by about 17 species. Two similar and coexisting genera are Tanaecia and Euthalia, the latter including some Lexias species; the largest species reach a wingspan of about 10 cm. Lexias pardalis and L. dirtea are among the most colourful archdukes. Sexual dichromatism is however extreme, with the two sexes appearing different; the males' dorsal wing surfaces are a dramatic combination of velvety black forewings and metallic blue green to violet covering the margins of the forewings and hindwings. The females' dorsal wing surfaces are a drab brown, with small yellowish white spots. Both sexes have drab ventral wings as a means of camouflage; the dramatic colours of the males are thought to play a role in intraspecies communication, both by signalling to other males when defending territory, by attracting females.
L. pardalis and L. dirtea, two farmed species, are nearly identical and confused, but they can be distinguished by their differing antennae: the dorsal surface of L. pardalis' antennae tips are yellow orange, whereas they are black in L. dirtea. Caterpillars of the genus are protected from predators by their long spinous bristles. Archduke chrysalids are angular in shape. Calophyllum trees are host to the caterpillars of Southeast Asian archdukes; the observed readiness of Southeast Asian species to feed on both decaying fruit and the nectar of flowers suggests that these species inhabit the forest periphery. Because both types of food are common in this habitat, the Southeast Asian archdukes have not become specialised in feeding on one or the other, as is usual in butterflies. Archdukes are found in virgin forests and are attracted to sunlit areas such as clearings and paths. Several archduke species are raised in large numbers on butterfly farms for the specimen collecting market and for live sale to butterfly conservatories.
The most farmed species are L. pardalis and L. dirtea. In alphabetical order: Lexias acutipenna Chou & Li, 1994 Lexias aeetes Lexias aegle Lexias aeropa – orange-banded plane Lexias albopunctata Lexias bangkana Lexias canescens - yellow archduke Lexias cyanipardus – great archduke Lexias damalis Lexias dirtea – archduke Lexias elna Lexias hikarugenzi Tsukada & Nishiyama, 1980 Lexias immaculata Lexias panopus C. & R. Felder, 1861 Lexias pardalis Lexias perdix Lexias satrapes C. & R. Felder, 1861 Harris, M.. The Archduke reigns. ISU Extension News Release. Retrieved 20 May 2005 from iastate.edu Missouri Botanical Garden Butterfly House.. The Archduke - Male. Retrieved May 20, 2005 from butterflyhouse.org Savela, M.. Limenitidinae. Retrieved 20 May 2005 from funet.fi Data related to Lexias at Wikispecies
Barons in Scotland
In Scotland, a Baron is the head of a "feudal" barony. This used to be attached to a particular piece of land on, the "caput", or the essence of the barony a building, such as a castle or manor house. Accordingly, the owner of the piece of land containing the "caput" was baroness; the Court of the Lord Lyon issued a new ruling April 2015 that recognises a person possessing the dignity of baron and other feudal titles. Lord Lyon now prefers the approach of recognizing the particular feudal noble dignity as expressed in the Crown Charter that the petitioner presents; these titles are recognised as the status of a minor baron but not a peer. Scottish feudal baronies may be passed to any person, of either sex, by conveyance. Scotland has a distinct legal system within the United Kingdom. In the Kingdom of Scotland, the Lord Lyon King of Arms, as the Sovereign’s Minister in matters armorial, is at once Herald and Judge; the Scottish equivalent of an English baron is a lord of Parliament. Scottish Prescriptive Barony by Tenure was, from 1660 until 2004, the feudal description of the only genuine degree of title of UK nobility capable of being bought and sold, rather than passing by blood inheritance.
Statutes of 1592 and the Baronetcy Warrants of King Charles I show the non-peerage Table of Precedence as: Baronets, Knights and Lairds, Esquire and Gentlemen. A General Register of Sasines was set up by Statute in 1617, with entry in the Register giving the prescriptive right, after so many years, to the "caput" or essence of the Barony; the individual who owned the said piece of land containing the caput was hence the Baron or Baroness. Uncertainty over armorial right was removed by the Lyon Register being set up by Statute in 1672, such that no arms were to be borne in Scotland unless validly entered in Lyon Register. Up until 1874 each new Baron was confirmed in his Barony by the Crown by Charter of Confirmation. Up until 28 November 2004 a Barony was an estate of land held directly of the Crown, or the Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, it was an essential element of a barony title that there existed a Crown Charter erecting the land into a Barony, recorded in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland.
The original Charter was lost, however an Official Extract has the same legal status as the original Charter. From the Treaty of Union of 1707 - until 1999 - a unified Parliament of Great Britain, at Westminster, was responsible for passing legislation affecting private law both north and south of the Scottish border. In 1999 the devolved Scottish Parliament was established, Private law measures can now be passed at Holyrood, the seat of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Using a prescriptive feudal grant allowed developers to impose perpetual conditions affecting the land; the courts became willing to accept the validity of such obligations, which became known as real burdens. In practical and commercial terms, these real burdens were like English leasehold tenure; the first Scottish Executive was committed to abolishing the anachronism of the feudal system. On 28 November 2004 the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. Act 2000 came into full effect, putting an end to Scotland's feudal system. Under Scots law, a Scottish Prescriptive Barony by Tenure is now "incorporeal feudal heritage", not attached to the land and remains the only genuine, degree of title of UK nobility capable of being bought and sold – since under Section 63 of the Act, the dignity of Baron is preserved after the abolition of the feudal system.
However, the Abolition Act did end the ability to get feudal land privileges by inheriting or acquiring the caput in Scotland. In common law jurisdictions, land may still be owned and inherited through a barony if the land is titled in "the Baron of X" as baron rather than in the individual's name. In America it passes with the barony as a fee simple appurtenance to an otherwise incorporeal hereditament, the barony being treated like a landowning corporation. In Scotland, the practice has not been tested in a Court of Session case since the Act. What is the oldest barony in Scotland, the Barony of the Bachuil, has not depended on land ownership for centuries. Unlike all other barons in Scotland, the lawful possessor of the stick is the Baron of the Bachuil, regardless of landholdings. After 28 November 2004 under Scots law, a Scottish Barony, Scottish heritable property, became incorporeal heritable property. Prior to the Act coming into effect, Scottish Feudal Baronies were the only genuine title of UK nobility capable of being transferred following the sale of land containing a "caput".
Most baronies were created prior to 1745 but one was erected as late as 1824. Since the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. Act 2000 came into effect, the Lord Lyon, the Chief Herald of Scotland, has restored a more traditional form to the coat of arms of a Baron. Barons are now identified by the helm befitting their degree. A new policy statement has been made by the Lord Lyon to this effect. Independent Scots legal advice should always be taken before entering into any contract that claims to offer a Baronial title for sale; the holder of the dignity of a Barony may petition the Lord Lyon
Ministerialis
Ministerialis were people raised up from serfdom to be placed in positions of power and responsibility. In the Holy Roman Empire, in the High Middle Ages, the word and its German translations and Dienstmann, came to describe those unfree nobles who made up a large majority of what could be described as the German knighthood during that time. What began as an irregular arrangement of workers with a wide variety of duties and restrictions rose in status and wealth to become the power brokers of an empire; the ministeriales were not free people, but held social rank. Their liege lord determined whom they could or could not marry, they were not able to transfer their lords' properties to heirs or spouses, they were, considered members of the nobility since, a social designation, not a legal one. Ministeriales were trained knights, held military responsibilities and surrounded themselves with the trappings of knighthood, so were accepted as noblemen. Both women and men held the ministerial status, the laws on ministeriales made no distinction between the sexes in how they were treated.
The origin of the ministerial pedigree is obscure. A mediaeval chronicler reported that Julius Caesar defeated the Gauls and rewarded his Germanic allies with Roman rank. Princes were awarded senatorial status and their lesser knights received Roman citizenship, he assigned these'knights' to princes but urged the princes "to treat the knights not as slaves and servants but rather to receive their services as the knights' lords and defenders. "Hence it is," the chronicler explained, "that German knights, unlike their counterparts in other nations, are called servants of the royal fisc and princely ministerials." In England there was no group of knights referred to as ministeriales, for the tight grip that English lords held upon their knights gave them less freedom than their German counterparts who had codified rights. Abbot Adalard of Corbie was Emperor Charlemagne's chief adviser, described the running of the government in his work De ordine palatii. There he praises the great merits of his imperial staff, made up of household servii proprii who were the first ministerials authoritatively recorded.
His letters specify that not only were they considered exceptional by their superiors, but the ministerials mentored their successors in a form of administrative apprenticeship program. This may be the origin of ministerials as individuals in a set position, it was Emperor Conrad II. He had them organized into a staff of administrators. In documents they are referred to ministerial men. Ministeriales of the post-Classical period who were not in the royal household were at first bondsmen or serfs taken from the servi proprii, or household servants These servants were entrusted with special responsibilities by their overlords, such as the management of a farm, administration of finances or of various possessions. Free nobles disliked entering into servile relationships with other nobles, so lords of a necessity recruited bailiffs and officials from among their unfree servants who could fulfill a household warrior role. From the 11th century the term came to denote functionaries living as members of the knightly class with either a lordship of their own or one delegated from a higher lord as well as some political influence.
Kings placed military requirements upon their princes, who in turn, placed requirements upon their vassals. The free nobles under a prince may have a bond of vassalage that let them get out of serving, so kings, princes and archbishops were able to recruit unfree persons into military service; such a body made up the group called ministeriales. There were two sorts of ministerials: casati, who administered lands and estates for a liege and were paid from the proceeds of the land and non-casati, who held administrative and military positions but were paid in either a fixed amount of coin or by a portion of the proceeds of mills, road or bridge tolls, or ferry fees or port taxes; as the need for such service functions became more acute, their duties and privileges, at first nebulous, became more defined, the ministeriales developed in the Salian period into a new and much differentiated class. They received fiefs, which to begin with were not heritable, in return for which they provided knightly services.
They were allowed to possess, did hold, allods: ownership of real property, independent of any superior landlord, but it should not be confused with anarchy as the owner of allodial land is not independent of his sovereign. Ministerials were found holding the four great offices necessary to run a great household: seneschal, butler and chamberlain, they were castellans, having both military and administrative responsibilities. Conrad II of Kuchl was the financial adviser to four archbishops over the course of 40 years. From the reign of Archbishop Conrad II they were employed as stewards and judges in the administration of the imperial territories, in the lay principalities; as Imperial ministerials they upheld the Salian, the Hohenst
Knight
A knight is a man granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch, bishop or other political or religious leader for service to the monarch or a Christian church in a military capacity. In Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors. During the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior. A knight was a vassal who served as an elite fighter, a bodyguard or a mercenary for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings; the lords trusted the knights. Knighthood in the Middle Ages was linked with horsemanship from its origins in the 12th century until its final flowering as a fashion among the high nobility in the Duchy of Burgundy in the 15th century; this linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry and related terms. The special prestige accorded to mounted warriors in Christendom finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, the Greek hippeis and Roman eques of classical antiquity.
In the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations. The ideals of chivalry were popularized in medieval literature the literary cycles known as the Matter of France, relating to the legendary companions of Charlemagne and his men-at-arms, the paladins, the Matter of Britain, relating to the legend of King Arthur and his Round Table. Today, a number of orders of knighthood continue to exist in Christian Churches, as well as in several Christian countries and their former territories, such as the Roman Catholic Order of the Holy Sepulchre and Order of Malta, the Protestant Order of Saint John, as well as the English Order of the Garter, the Swedish Royal Order of the Seraphim, the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav; each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is granted by a head of state, monarch, or prelate to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement, as in the British honours system for service to the Church or country.
The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht; this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which meant knight; the meaning of cniht changed over time from its original meaning of "boy" to "household retainer". Ælfric's homily of St. Swithun describes a mounted retainer as a cniht. While cnihtas might have fought alongside their lords, their role as household servants features more prominently in the Anglo-Saxon texts. In several Anglo-Saxon wills cnihtas are left either money or lands. In his will, King Æthelstan leaves his cniht, eight hides of land. A rādcniht, "riding-servant", was a servant on horseback. A narrowing of the generic meaning "servant" to "military follower of a king or other superior" is visible by 1100; the specific military sense of a knight as a mounted warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years' War.
The verb "to knight" appears around 1300. An Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire; this class is translated as "knight". In the Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier: Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, Romanian cavaler; the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider: German Ritter, Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, "to ride", in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-. In ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris; some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, some armies, such as those of the Ostrogoths, were cavalry.
However, it was the Franks who fielded armies composed of large masses of infantry, with an infantry elite, the comitatus, which rode to battle on horseback rather than marching on foot. When the armies of the Frankish ruler Charles Martel defeated the Umayyad Arab invasion at the Battle of Tours in 732, the Frankish forces were still infantry armies, with elites riding to battle but dismounting to fight. In the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin; the first knights appeared during the reign of Charlemagne in the 8th century. As the Carolingian Age progressed, the Franks were on the attack, larger numbers of warriors took to their horses to ride with the Emperor in his wide-ranging campaigns of conquest. At about this time the Franks remained on horseback to fight on the battlefield as true cavalry rather than mounted in
Fürst
Fürst is a German word for a ruler and is a princely title. Fürsten were, since the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ruled over states of the Holy Roman Empire and its former territories, below the ruling Kaiser or König. A Prince of the Holy Roman Empire was the reigning sovereign ruler of an Imperial State that held imperial immediacy in the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire; the territory ruled is referred to in German as a Fürstentum, the family dynasty referred to as a Fürstenhaus, the descendants of a Fürst are titled and referred to in German as Prinz or Prinzessin. The English language uses the term prince for both concepts. Latin-based languages employ a single term, whereas Dutch as well as the Scandinavian and Slavic languages use separate terms similar to those used in German. Since the Middle Ages, the German designation and title of Fürst refers to: the highest members of the nobility who ruled over the Holy Roman Empire, below the ruling Kaiser or König; the title Fürst is used for the heads of princely houses of German origin.
From the Late Middle Ages, it referred to any vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor ruling over an immediate estate. Unless he holds a higher title, such as grand duke or king, he will be known either by the formula "Fürst von + ", or by the formula "Fürst zu + "; these forms can be combined, as in "...von und zu Liechtenstein". The rank of the title-holder is not determined by the title itself, but by his degree of sovereignty, the rank of his suzerain, or the age of the princely family; the Fürst ranked below the Herzog in the Holy Roman Empire's hierarchy, but princes did not rank below dukes in non-German parts of Europe. The style associated with the title of Fürst in post-medieval Europe, was considered inferior to Hoheit in Germany, though not in France; the present-day rulers of the sovereign principality of Liechtenstein bear the title of Fürst, the title is used in German when referring to the ruling princes of Monaco. The hereditary rulers of the one-time principalities of Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania were all referred to in German as Fürsten before they assumed the title of "king".
Fürst is used more in German to refer to any ruler, such as a king, a reigning duke, or a prince in the broad sense. Before the 12th century, counts were included in this group, in accordance with its usage in the Holy Roman Empire, in some historical or ceremonial contexts, the term Fürst can extend to any lord; the descendants of a Fürst, when that title has not been restricted by patent or custom to male primogeniture, is distinguished in title from the head of the family by use of the prefix Prinz. A nobleman whose family is non-dynastic, i.e. has never reigned or been mediatised, may be made a Fürst by a sovereign, in which case the grantee and his heirs are deemed titular or nominal princes, enjoying only honorary princely title without commensurate rank. In families thus elevated to princely title in or after the 18th century, the cadets hold only the title of Graf, such as in the families of the princes of Bismarck and Hardenberg. However, in a few cases, the title of Fürst was shared by all male-line descendants of the original grantee.
Several titles were derived from the term Fürst: Reichsfürst was a ruling Prince whose territory was part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was entitled to a vote, either individually or as a member of a voting unit, in the Imperial Diet. Reichsfürst was used generically for any ruler who cast his vote in either of the Reichstag's two upper chambers, the Electoral College or the College of Princes: Their specific title might be king, grand duke, margrave, count palatine, Imperial prince or Imperial count. Included in this group were the reichsständisch Personalisten, Imperial princes and counts whose small territories did not meet the Fürstenrat's criteria for voting membership as an Imperial estate, but whose family's right to vote therein was recognised by the Emperor. A Prince of the Church who voted in the Electoral or Princely College, along with a handful of titular princes might be referred to as Reichsfürsten. Kirchenfürst was a hierarch who held an ecclesiastic fief and Imperial princely rank, such as prince-bishops, prince-abbots, or Grand Masters of a Christian military order.
Landesfürst is a princely head of state, i.e. not just a titular prince
Imperial Knight
The Free Imperial knights were free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, whose direct overlord was the Emperor. They were the remnants of the ministeriales. What distinguished them from other knights, who were vassals of a higher lord, was the fact that they had been granted Imperial immediacy, as such were the equals in most respects to the other individuals or entities, such as the secular and ecclesiastical territorial rulers of the Empire and the Free Imperial cities, that enjoyed Imperial immediacy. However, unlike all of those, the Imperial knights did not possess the status of Estates of the Empire, therefore were not represented, individually or collectively, in the Imperial Diet, they tended to define their responsibilities to the Empire in terms of feudalized obligations to the Emperor, including personal service and voluntary financial offerings paid to the Emperor himself. To protect their rights and avoid vassalage to more powerful nobles, they organized themselves into three unions in the late 15th century and into a single body in 1577, fought to win recognition.
This status, beholden only to the Emperor himself rather than through a more powerful noble, meant the Imperial Knights were "immediate subjects". As such, the Imperial Knights exercised a limited form of sovereignty within their territories; the Imperial Knighthood was a regional phenomenon limited to southwestern and south-central Germany—Swabia and the Middle Rhine area—zones which were fragmented politically and where no powerful states were able to develop. In northern and northeastern Germany, as well as in Bavaria and Austria, the local nobles, facing larger states and stronger rulers, were incapable of developing and maintaining their independence, they formed the territorial nobility. The immediate status of the Imperial Knights was recognized at the Peace of Westphalia, they never gained access to the Imperial Diet, the parliament of lords, were not considered Hochadel, the high nobility, belonging to the Lower Nobility. The Free Imperial Knights arose in the 14th century, the fusion of the remnants of the old free lords and the stronger elements of the unfree ministeriales that had won noble status.
Around 1300, the manoral economy suffered contraction due to the fluctuation in the price of agricultural foodstuffs. Ministeriales who were in a stronger economic position were better able to survive the weakening of their basis as landowners; the vast majority languished in poverty, resorting to selling lands to brigandage. The minority of ministeriales rich enough to weather the crises soon came to be identified with the remnants of the free nobility, were thus seen as constituting one noble order. By 1422, some of these nobles had achieved jurisdictional autonomy under the Emperor, the corporation of free imperial knights was born; the other ministeriales that did not manage to receive the status of immediate vassals of the Emperor were transformed into a titled nobility of free status: the Freiherren. By 1577, the Imperial Knights achieved the status of a noble corporate body within the empire: the corpus equestre. In the Peace of Westphalia, the privileges of the Imperial Knights were confirmed.
The knights paid their own tax to the Emperor, possessed limited sovereignty, the ius reformandi. The knightly families had the right of house legislation, subject to the Emperor's approval, so could control such things as the marriage of members and set the terms of the inheritance of family property. Imperial knights did not, have access to the Imperial Diet. Concerning the rights of Free Imperial Knights, Joseph Friederich von Ledersheim wrote in 1715: Section XII: “…they possess forestry rights …the right of hunting. Section XV: “they enjoy the freedom of religion and therefore of establishing the Protestant Religion in churches and schools not only in their own hereditary territories but in those fiefs held from another state…they are able whenever they wish to abolish and introduce either religion if they hold the position of vogt over the possessions.” All matters relating to the Imperial Knights' legal status as immediate vassals of the Emperor were managed by the Imperial Aulic Council.
Lacking access to the Imperial Diet, in 1650 the immediate knights organized themselves into three circles: the Fr
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