1.
Royal and noble ranks
–
Traditional rank amongst European royalty, peers, and nobility is rooted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although they vary over time and between regions, the following is a reasonably comprehensive list that provides information on both general ranks and specific differences. The word monarch is derived from the Greek μονάρχης, monárkhēs, the word sovereign is derived from the Latin above. Autocrat is derived from the Greek αὐτοκράτωρ, αὐτός and κρατείν, common titles for European and Near Eastern monarchs Note that many titles listed may also be used by lesser nobles – non-sovereigns – depending on the historical period and state. The sovereign titles listed below are grouped together into categories according to their degree of dignity, these being, imperial, high royal, royal, others. Imperial titles Emperor, from the Latin Imperator, meaning commander or one who commands, in English, the feminine form is Empress. The realm of an emperor or empress is termed an Empire, kaiser, derived from Caesar, primarily used in Germanic countries. Basileus, from Mycenaean Greek meaning chieftain, later used for the Roman emperors of the Byzantine period, tsar / Czar / Csar / Tzar, derived from Caesar, the feminine form Tsarina, primarily used in Bulgaria, and after that in Russia and other Slavic countries. Samraat, is an Ancient Indian title sometimes translated into modern English as Emperor, Chhatrapati, is the Indian royal title equivalent to an Emperor. The word ‘Chhatrapati’ is from Sanskrit chatra and pati, Chhatrapati thus indicates a person who gives shade to his followers and protects their success. Sapa Inca, The Sapa Inca or Sapa Inka, also known as Apu, Inka Qhapaq, or simply Sapa, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Cusco and, later, the Emperor of the Inca Empire and the Neo-Inca State. High royal titles King of Kings mostly used in Christian contexts to denote Jesus Christ or the Christian Roman emperors of the Late Empire, shahanshah, literally King of Kings in Middle Persian šāhān šāh, meaning Kings King. Used in Persia and surrounding countries, sultan of Sultans, literally King of Kings in Ottoman Turkish Sulṭānüs-Selāṭīn, meaning Kings King. Used in Turkey and surrounding countries of the Ottoman dynasty, taewang, literally Supreme King, a Korean title for the rulers of the Goguryeo Empire and later dynasties such as the Kingdom of Joseon. Nəgusä Nägäst, title of the Emperors of Ethiopia, meaning King of Kings, mansa, title of the Emperors of the Mali Empire, meaning King of Kings. Mepe-Mepeta, Georgian for King of Kings, khagan, derived from Khan of Khans, used by the Central Asian nomads. High king, A king who rules over lesser kings, devaraja, literally God King, a title in the Khmer Empire and throughout Java. Mahārāja, Sanskrit for a king or high king
Royal and noble ranks
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Royal and noble ranks in Persia, Turkey, Caucasus, Pakistan and Afghanistan
Royal and noble ranks
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Royal, noble and chivalric ranks
2.
Emperor
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An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the equivalent, may indicate an emperors wife, mother. Emperors are generally recognized to be of an honour and rank than kings. The Emperor of Japan is the currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as Emperor. Both kings and emperors are monarchs, but emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. In as much as there is a definition of emperor, it is that an emperor has no relations implying the superiority of any other ruler. Thus a king might be obliged to pay tribute to another ruler, or be restrained in his actions in some unequal fashion, although initially ruling much of Central Europe and northern Italy, by the 19th century the Emperor exercised little power beyond the German speaking states. In Eastern Europe the rulers of the Russian Empire also used translatio imperii to wield authority as successors to the Eastern Roman Empire. Their title of Emperor was officially recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1514, in practice the Russian Emperors are often known by their Russian-language title Tsar, which may also used to refer to rulers equivalent to a king. Historians have liberally used emperor and empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to any large state from the past or the present. Such pre-Roman titles as Great King or King of Kings, used by the Kings of Persia, however such empires did not need to be headed by an emperor. Empire became identified instead with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century, outside the European context, emperor was the translation given to holders of titles who were accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers might accredit equal titles in their languages to their European peers. Through centuries of international convention, this has become the dominant rule to identifying an emperor in the modern era, also the name of the position split in several branches of Western tradition, see below. Later new symbols of worldly and/or spiritual power, like the orb, rules for indicating successors also varied, there was a tendency towards male inheritance of the supreme office, but as well election by noblemen, as ruling empresses are known. Ruling monarchs could additionally steer the succession by adoption, as occurred in the two first centuries of Imperial Rome. Of course, intrigue, murder and military force could also mingle in for appointing successors, probably the epoch best known for this part of the imperial tradition is Romes third century rule. When Republican Rome turned into a de facto monarchy in the half of the 1st century BC
Emperor
–
A statue of the dictator
Julius Caesar.
Emperor
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Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Emperor
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Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire.
Emperor
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Under
Justinian I, reigning in the 6th century, parts of Italy were for a few decades (re)conquered from the
Ostrogoths: thus, this famous
mosaic, featuring the Byzantine emperor in the center, can be admired at
Ravenna.
3.
King
–
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, in the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate Latin rex or either Greek archon or basileus. In classical European feudalism, the title of king as the ruler of a kingdom is understood as the highest rank in the order, potentially subject. In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a number of modern monarchies. The title of king is used alongside other titles for monarchs, in the West prince, emperor, archduke, duke or grand duke, in the Middle East sultan or emir, etc. Kings, like other royalty, tend to wear purple because purple was a color to wear in the past. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz, the Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas. The English term king translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx, the Germanic term is notably different from the word for king in other Indo-European languages. It is a derivation from the term *kunjom kin by the -inga- suffix, the literal meaning is that of a scion of the kin, or perhaps son or descendant of one of noble birth. English queen translates Latin regina, it is from Old English cwen queen, noble woman, the Germanic term for wife appears to have been specialized to wife of a king, in Old Norse, the cognate kvan still mostly refers to a wife generally. Scandinavian drottning, dronning is a derivation from *druhtinaz lord. The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship, the Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms. The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, in southern Europe, the kingdom of Sicily was established following the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia was claimed as a title held by the Crown of Aragon in 1324. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Serbia was established in 1217, in eastern-central Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD1000 following the Christianisation of the Magyars. The kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia were established within the Holy Roman Empire in 1025 and 1198, in Eastern Europe, the Kievan Rus consolidated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which did not technically claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia. In northern Europe, the kingdoms of the Viking Age by the 11th century expanded into the North Sea Empire under Cnut the Great, king of Denmark, England
King
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The nine European Monarchs who attended the
funeral of
King Edward VII of Britain, photographed at
Windsor Castle on 20 May 1910. Standing, from left to right:
King Haakon VII of Norway,
Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria,
King Manuel II of Portugal,
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany,
King George I of Greece and
King Albert I of Belgium. Seated, from left to right:
King Alfonso XIII of Spain,
King George V of Britain and
King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
King
King
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Ramesses II, the third
Pharaoh of the
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
4.
Archduke
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Archduke was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty. It denotes a rank within the former Holy Roman Empire, which was below that of Emperor and King and above that of a Grand Duke, Duke, the territory ruled by an Archduke or Archduchess was called an Archduchy. All remaining Archduchies ceased to exist in 1918, in the Carolingian Empire, the title Archduke was awarded not as rank of nobility, but as a unique honorary title to the Duke of Lotharingia. Lotharingia was eventually absorbed by East Francia, becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire rather than a fully independent Kingdom, the later extended fragmentation of both territories created two succeeding Duchies in the Low Countries, Brabant and Geldre. Both claimed archducal status but were never recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor. Archduke of Austria, the archducal title to re-emerge, was invented in the Privilegium Maius in the 14th century by Duke Rudolf IV of Austria. Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV refused to recognise the title, as did all the ruling dynasties of the member countries of the Empire. But Duke Ernest the Iron and his descendants assumed the title of Archduke. Emperor Frederick III himself simply used the title Duke of Austria, never Archduke, the title was first granted to Fredericks younger brother, Albert VI of Austria, who used it at least from 1458. In 1477, Frederick III also granted the title of Archduke to his first cousin, Sigismund of Austria, the title appears first in documents issued under the joint rule of Maximilian and his son Philip in the Low Countries. Archduke was initially borne by those dynasts who ruled a Habsburg territory—i. e, only by males and their consorts, appanages being commonly distributed to cadets. But these junior archdukes did not thereby become sovereign hereditary rulers, occasionally a territory might be combined with a separate gubernatorial mandate ruled by an archducal cadet. From the 16th century onward, Archduke and its form, Archduchess. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire this usage was retained in the Austrian Empire, thus those members of the Habsburg family who are residents of the Republic of Austria are simply known by their first name and their surname Habsburg-Lothringen. However, members of the family who reside in other countries may or may not use the title, in accordance with laws, for example, Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, the eldest son of the last Habsburg Emperor, was an Austrian, Hungarian and German citizen. Hence, no member of the family other than the King bears the title of Archduke. The insignia of the Archduke of Lower and Upper Austria was the archducal hat, List of rulers of Austria List of Austrian consorts
Archduke
–
Archducal hat, the coronet of an archduke
Archduke
–
Bust of
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
Archduke
–
The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand (right) with his family. Ferdinand, along with his wife, was assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914, which sparked World War I
5.
Grand prince
–
The title grand prince or great prince ranked in honour below king and emperor and above a sovereign prince. German, Dutch, Slavic and Scandinavian languages do use separate words to express this concept, the title of grand prince was once used for the sovereign of a grand principality. The last titular grand principalities vanished in 1917 and 1918, the territories being united into other monarchies or becoming republics. The last sovereign to reign whose highest title was grand prince was Ivan IV of Moscow in the 16th century, when Ivan IVs pre-tsarist title is referred to in English, however, it is usually as grand duke. Velikiy knjaz is also a Russian courtesy title for members of the family of the Russian tsar, Grand Prince, used in the Slavic and Baltic languages, was the title of a medieval monarch who headed a more-or-less loose confederation whose constituent parts were ruled by lesser princes. Those grand princes title and position was at the time usually translated as king, in fact, the Slavic knjaz and the Baltic kunigaikštis are cognates of king. However, a prince was usually only primus inter pares within a dynasty. All princes of the family were eligible to inherit a crown. Often other members of the dynasty ruled some constituent parts of the monarchy/country, an established use of the title was in the Kievan Rus and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Thus, Veliki Knjaz has been more like high king than grand duke, at least, as these countries expanded territorially and moved towards primogeniture and centralization, their rulers acquired more elevated titles. Grand Prince was the used by contemporary sources to name the leader of the federation of the Hungarian tribes in the 10th century. It was used by Géza and his son and heir Stephen of Hungary, in the Middle Ages, the Serbian veliki župan was the supreme chieftain in the multi-tribal society. The title signifies overlordship, as the leader of lesser chieftains titled župan and it was used by the Serb rulers in the 11th and 12th centuries. In Greek, it was known as archizoupanos, megazoupanos and megalos zoupanos, in the 1090s, Vukan became the veliki župan in Raška. Stefan Nemanja expelled his brother Tihomir in 1168 and assumed the title of veliki župan, a Latin document used mega iupanus for King Stefan the First-Crowned. Afterwards, it was a noble rank with notable holders such as Altoman Vojinović. Later, several princes of nationally important cities, which comprised vassal appanage principalities, from 1328 the Grand Prince of Moscow appeared as the titular head of eastern Rus and slowly centralized power until Ivan IV was crowned tsar in 1547. Since then, the grand prince ceased to be a hereditary office
Grand prince
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Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
6.
Grand duke
–
He was defeated by the royal armies but nevertheless obtained a remarkable autonomy as a Magnus Dux, leading ultimately to Portuguese independence from the Spanish Kingdom of Castille-León. Another example was the line of self-proclaimed grand dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century and they tried -ultimately without success- to create from these territories under their control a new unified country between the Kingdom of France in the west and the Holy Roman Empire in the east. His son and successor Charles the Bold continued to use the style and title. The title magnus dux or grand duke has been used by the rulers of Lithuania, the first monarchs ever officially titled grand duke were the Medici sovereigns of Tuscany, starting from the late 16th century. This official title was granted by Pope Pius V in 1569, thus the 19th century saw a new group of monarchs titled Grand Duke in central Europe, especially in present-day Germany. A list of these is available in the grand duchy. In the same century, the ceremonial version of the title grand duke in Russia expanded massively because of the large number of progeny of the ruling House of Romanov during those decades. After the Russian conquests, the continued to be used by the Russian Emperors in their role as rulers of both Lithuania and the autonomous Finland. The Holy Roman Empire under the House of Habsburg instituted a similar non-sovereign Großfürstentum Siebenbürgen in 1765, Grand princes were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal overlords of other princes. At the time, the title was translated as king. However, Grand Princes did not have the same precedence as later Western European kings. Grand Princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs, the title Grand Prince translates to Velikiy Knjaz in Russian. The Slavic word knjaz and the Lithuanian kunigas are cognates of the word King in its meaning of Ruler. Thus, the meaning of Veliki Knjaz and Didysis Kunigas was more like Great Ruler than Grand Duke. Grand Prince Ivan IV of Muscovy was the last monarch to reign without claiming any higher title, the rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania used the title of Grand Prince, this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs after their conquest of Hungary. The Polish Kings of the Swedish House of Vasa also used the title for their non-Polish territories. The Latin title dux, which was phonetically rendered doux in Greek, was a title for imperial generals in the Late Roman Empires. Under the latter, exclusively Byzantine theme system, the commander of a theme was often styled a doux instead of the earlier strategos from the 10th century on
Grand duke
–
Portrait of Grand Duchess
Maria Fiodorovna by Heinrich von Angeli (1874) Saint Petersburg,
Hermitage Museum
Grand duke
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
7.
Prince
–
A prince is a male ruler, monarch, or member of a monarchs or former monarchs family. Prince is also a title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess, the English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun princeps, from primus + capio, meaning the chief, most distinguished, ruler, prince. The Latin word prīnceps, became the title of the informal leader of the Roman senate some centuries before the transition to empire. Emperor Augustus established the position of monarch on the basis of principate. The term may be used of persons in various cultures. These titles were borne by courtesy and preserved by tradition, not law, in medieval and Early Modern Europe, there were as many as two hundred such territories, especially in Italy, Germany, and Gaelic Ireland. In this sense, prince is used of any and all rulers and this is the Renaissance use of the term found in Niccolò Machiavellis famous work, Il Principe. Most small territories designated as principalities during feudal eras were allodial and this is attested in some surviving styles for e. g. British earls, marquesses, and dukes are still addressed by the Crown on ceremonial occasions as high, in parts of the Holy Roman Empire in which primogeniture did not prevail, all legitimate agnates had an equal right to the familys hereditary titles. Gradual substitution of the title of Prinz for the title of Fürst occurred. Both Prinz and Fürst are translated into English as prince, but they not only different. This distinction had evolved before the 18th century for dynasties headed by a Fürst in Germany, note that the princely title was used as a prefix to his Christian name, which also became customary. Cadets of Frances other princes étrangers affected similar usage under the Bourbon kings, the post-medieval rank of gefürsteter Graf embraced but elevated the German equivalent of the intermediate French, English and Spanish nobles. By the 19th century, cadets of a Fürst would become known as Prinzen, the husband of a queen regnant is usually titled prince consort or simply prince, whereas the wives of male monarchs take the female equivalent of their husbands title. In Brazil, Portugal and Spain, however, the husband of a monarch was accorded the masculine equivalent of her title. To complicate matters, the style His/Her Highness, a prefix often accompanying the title of a dynastic prince, although the arrangement set out above is the one that is most commonly understood, there are also different systems. Depending on country, epoch, and translation, other usages of prince are possible, foreign-language titles such as Italian principe, French prince, German Fürst and Prinz, Russian knyaz, etc. are usually translated as prince in English
Prince
–
Cicero attacks
Catiline in the
Senate of the Roman Republic.
Prince
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Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Prince
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Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, was the premier prince du sang during his lifetime (painted by Joost van Egmont).
Prince
–
José, Prince of Brazil,
Duke of Braganza, died before he could ascend to the throne of Portugal.
8.
Marquess
–
A marquess is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is used to translate equivalent Asian styles, as in imperial China. In Great Britain and Ireland, the spelling of the aristocratic title of this rank is marquess. In Scotland the French spelling is sometimes used. In Great Britain and Ireland, the ranks below a duke. A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is called a marchioness /ˌmɑːrʃəˈnɛs/ in Great Britain, the dignity, rank or position of the title is referred to as a marquisate or marquessate. The theoretical distinction between a marquess and other titles has, since the Middle Ages, faded into obscurity. In times past, the distinction between a count and a marquess was that the land of a marquess, called a march, was on the border of the country, while a land, called a county. As a result of this, a marquess was trusted to defend and fortify against potentially hostile neighbours and was more important. The title is ranked below that of a duke, which was restricted to the royal family. In the German lands, a Margrave was a ruler of an immediate Imperial territory, German rulers did not confer the title of marquis, holders of marquisates in Central Europe were largely associated with the Italian and Spanish crowns. The word entered the English language from the Old French marchis in the late 13th or early 14th century, the French word was derived from marche, itself descended from the Middle Latin marca, from which the modern English words march and mark also descend. In Great Britain and Ireland, the spelling for an English aristocrat of this rank is marquess. The word marquess is unusual in English, ending in -ess but referring to a male, a woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is called a marchioness in Great Britain and Ireland, or a marquise /mɑːrˈkiːz/ elsewhere in Europe. The dignity, rank or position of the title is referred to as a marquisate or marquessate, the honorific prefix The Most Honourable is a form of address that precedes the name of a marquess or marchioness in the United Kingdom. The rank of marquess was a late introduction to the British peerage, no marcher lords had the rank of marquess. The following list may still be incomplete, feminine forms follow after a slash, many languages have two words, one for the modern marquess and one for the original margrave. Even where neither title was used domestically, such duplication to describe foreign titles can exist
Marquess
–
A 17th-century engraving of a marquis in the robe worn during his creation ceremony.
Marquess
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
9.
Margrave
–
Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defense of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Empire, thereafter, those domains were absorbed in larger realms or the titleholders adopted titles indicative of full sovereignty. Etymologically, the margrave is the English and French form of the German noble title Markgraf. As a noun and hereditary title, margrave was common to the languages of Europe, a Markgraf originally functioned as the military governor of a Carolingian mark, a medieval border province. The greater exposure of a province to military invasion mandated that the margrave be provided with military forces. As a military governor, the margraves authority often extended over a larger than the province proper. The margrave thus usually came to exercise commensurately greater politico-military power than other nobles, the margrave maintained the greater armed forces and fortifications required for repelling invasion, which increased his political strength and independence relative to the monarch. Most marks, and their margraves, sprung up along the Eastern border of the Carolingian Empire, the Breton Mark on the Atlantic Ocean and on the border of peninsular Brittany, and the Marca Hispanica on the Muslim frontier are notable exceptions. The Crusaders created new perilous borders, prone to war against the Saracens, hence had use for real border marches. These margraves became substantially independent rulers of states under the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Emperor, similar to the evolution of dukes, landgraves, counts palatine. The Golden Bull of 1356 was issued by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, the Mark Brandenburg became the nucleus of the House of Hohenzollerns later Kingdom of Prussia and the springboard to their eventual accession as German Emperors in 1871. They also inherited several, mainly Eastern European and Burgundian, principalities, Austria was originally called Marchia Orientalis in Latin, the eastern borderland, as Austria formed the eastern outpost of the Holy Roman Empire, on the border with the Magyars and the Slavs. Since the 19th century the term has been translated as Ostmark by some Germanophones, another Mark in the south-east, Styria, still appears as Steiermark in German today. The Margraves of Brandenburg and the Margraves of Meissen eventually became, respectively, by the 19th century, the sovereigns in Germany, Italy and Austria had all adopted higher titles, and not a single sovereign margraviate remained. However, from 1817 his male-line descendants of both marriages were internationally recognised as entitled to the prefix, which all used henceforth. The title of Margrave of Baden has been borne as a title of only by the head of the House of Zähringen since the death of the last reigning Grand Duke, Frederick II. Likewise, Margrave of Meissen is used as a title of pretence by the claimant to the Kingdom of Saxony since the death in exile of its last monarch, King Fredrick Augustus III, the margrave/marquis ranked below its nations equivalent of duke or of prince, but above count. The wife of a margrave is a margravine, in Germany and Austria, where titles were borne by all descendants in the male line of the original grantee, men and women alike, each daughter was a Markgräfin as each son was a Markgraf
Margrave
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
10.
Landgrave
–
Landgrave was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of Landgraf, Markgraf, and Pfalzgraf are in the class of ranks as Herzog. The English word landgrave is the equivalent of the German Landgraf, the title referred originally to a count who had imperial immediacy, or feudal duty owed directly to the Holy Roman Emperor. His jurisdiction stretched over a quite considerable territory, which was not subservient to an intermediate power, such as a Duke. The title survived from the times of the Holy Roman Empire, by definition, a landgrave exercised sovereign rights. His decision-making power was comparable to that of a Duke, a landgrave was a county nobleman in the British, privately held North American colony Carolina, ranking just below the proprietary. Examples include, Landgrave of Thuringia Landgraves of Hesse and its subsequent divisions, mayer, Theodor, Über Entstehung und Bedeutung der älteren deutschen Landgrafschaften, in Mitteralterliche Studien – Gesammelte Aufsätze, ed. F. Knapp 187–201. Also published in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Germanische Abteilung 58 210–288, mayer, Theodor, Herzogtum und Landeshoheit, Fürsten und Staat. Studien zur Verfassungsgeschichte des deutschen Mittelalters 276–301, eichenberger, T. Patria, Studien zur Bedeutung des Wortes im Mittelalter, Nationes – Historische und philologische Untersuchungen zur Entstehung der europäischen Nationen im Mittelalter 9. Van Droogenbroeck, Frans J. De betekenis van paltsgraaf Herman II voor het graafschap Brabant, van Droogenbroeck, Frans J. Het landgraafschap Brabant en zijn paltsgrafelijke voorgeschiedenis. De territoriale en institutionele aanloop tot het ontstaan van het hertogdom Brabant The dictionary definition of landgrave at Wiktionary
Landgrave
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
11.
Count
–
Count or countess is a title in European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey an approximate rank intermediate between the highest and lowest titles of nobility. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning “companion”, the adjective form of the word is comital. The British and Irish equivalent is an earl, alternative names for the count rank in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as Graf in Germany and Hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era. In the Western Roman Empire, Count came to indicate generically a military commander, in the Eastern Roman Empire, from about the seventh century, count was a specific rank indicating the commander of two centuries. Military counts in the Late Empire and the Germanic successor kingdoms were often appointed by a dux, the position of comes was originally not hereditary. By virtue of their estates, many counts could pass the title to their heirs—but not always. For instance, in Piast Poland, the position of komes was not hereditary, the title had disappeared by the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the office had been replaced by others. Only after the Partitions of Poland did the title of count resurface in the title hrabia, in the United Kingdom, the equivalent Earl can also be used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of a duke or marquess. In Italy, by contrast, all the sons of certain counts were counts, in Sweden there is a distinction between counts created before and after 1809. All children in comital families elevated before 1809 are called count/countess, the following lists are originally based on a Glossary on Heraldica. org by Alexander Krischnig. The male form is followed by the female, and when available, apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily to remain there. Dauphin was a comital title in southern France, used by the Dauphins of Vienne and Auvergne. The Dauphin was the lord of the province known as the région Dauphiné. Conde-Barão Count-Baron is a title used in Portugal, notably by D. Luís Lobo da Silveira, 7th Baron of Alvito. His palace in Lisbon still exists, located in a named after him. The German Graf and Dutch graaf stems from the Byzantine-Greek grapheus meaning he who calls a meeting together), the Ottoman military title of Serdar was used in Montenegro and Serbia as a lesser noble title with the equivalent rank of a Count. Since Louis VII, the highest precedence amongst the vassals of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief was a pairie, i. e. In the eleventh century, conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories
Count
–
Countly ephemera: a Count's coronet and crest on a
doily.
Count
–
Coronet of a count (Spanish heraldry)
12.
Earl
–
An earl /ɜːrl/ is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon in origin, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, in Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced by duke. In later medieval Britain, it became the equivalent of the continental count, however, earlier in Scandinavia, jarl could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the petty kingdoms of Norway had the title of jarl, alternative names for the rank equivalent to Earl/Count in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as the hakushaku of the post-restoration Japanese Imperial era. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess, a feminine form of earl never developed, instead, countess is used. The term earl has been compared to the name of the Heruli, proto-Norse eril, or the later Old Norse jarl, came to signify the rank of a leader. The Norman-derived equivalent count was not introduced following the Norman conquest of England though countess was and is used for the female title. In the other languages of Britain and Ireland, the term is translated as, Welsh iarll, Irish and Scottish Gaelic iarla, Scots yarl or yerl, Cornish yurl. An earl has the title Earl of when the title originates from a placename, in either case, he is referred to as Lord, and his wife as Lady. A countess who holds an earldom in her own right also uses Lady, younger sons are styled The Honourable, and daughters, The Lady. In the peerage of Scotland, when there are no courtesy titles involved, the heir to an earldom, and indeed any level of peerage, is styled Master of, and successive sons as younger of. In Anglo-Saxon England, earls had authority over their own regions and right of judgment in provincial courts and they collected fines and taxes and in return received a third penny, one-third of the money they collected. In wartime they led the kings armies, some shires were grouped together into larger units known as earldoms, headed by an ealdorman or earl. Under Edward the Confessor earldoms like Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Earls originally functioned essentially as royal governors. Though the title of Earl was nominally equal to the duke, unlike them. After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror tried to rule England using the traditional system, shires became the largest secular subdivision in England and earldoms disappeared. The Normans did create new earls like those of Herefordshire, Shropshire and their power and regional jurisdiction was limited to that of the Norman counts. There was no longer any administrative layer larger than the shire, Earls no longer aided in tax collection or made decisions in country courts and their numbers were small
Earl
–
The royal procession to
Parliament at
Westminster, 4 February 1512. Left to right: The
Marquess of Dorset,
Earl of Northumberland,
Earl of Surrey,
Earl of Shrewsbury,
Earl of Essex,
Earl of Kent,
Earl of Derby,
Earl of Wiltshire. From: Parliament Procession Roll of 1512.
Earl
–
An earl's
coronation robes.
13.
Viscount
–
A viscount or viscountess is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey a lower-middling rank. In many countries a viscount, and its equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial position. In the case of French viscounts, it is customary to leave the title untranslated as vicomte, the word viscount comes from Old French visconte, itself from Medieval Latin vicecomitem, accusative of vicecomes, from Late Latin vice- deputy + Latin comes. During the Carolingian Empire, the kings appointed counts to administer provinces and other regions, as governors. Viscounts were appointed to assist the counts in their running of the province, the kings strictly prevented the offices of their counts and viscounts from becoming hereditary, in order to consolidate their position and limit chance of rebellion. The title was in use in Normandy by at least the eleventh century. Similar to the Carolingian use of the title, the Norman viscounts were local administrators and their role was to administer justice and to collect taxes and revenues, often being castellan of the local castle. Under the Normans, the position developed into a hereditary one, the viscount was eventually replaced by bailiffs, and provosts. As a rank in British peerage, it was first recorded in 1440, the word viscount corresponds in the UK to the Anglo-Saxon shire reeve. A viscount is the rank in the British peerage system, standing below an earl. There are approximately 270 viscountcies currently extant in the peerages of the British Isles, an exception exists for Viscounts in the peerage of Scotland, who were traditionally styled The Viscount of, such as the Viscount of Arbuthnott. In practice, however, very few maintain this style, instead using the common version The Viscount in general parlance. A British viscount is addressed in speech as Lord, while his wife is Lady, the children of a viscount are known as The Honourable. A specifically British custom is the use of viscount as a title for the heir of an earl or marquess. The peers heir apparent will sometimes be referred to as a viscount, for example, the eldest son of the Earl Howe is Viscount Curzon, because this is the second most senior title held by the Earl. However, the son of a marquess or an earl can be referred to as a viscount when the title of viscount is not the second most senior if those above it share their name with the substantive title. For example, the second most senior title of the Marquess of Salisbury is the Earl of Salisbury, sometimes the son of a peer can be referred to as a viscount even when he could use a more senior courtesy title which differs in name from the substantive title. Family tradition plays a role in this, for example, the eldest son of the Marquess of Londonderry is Viscount Castlereagh, even though the Marquess is also the Earl Vane
Viscount
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
14.
Vidame
–
Vidame (French, was a feudal title in France, a term descended from mediaeval Latin vicedominus. Unlike the advocatus, however, the vice-dominus was at the outset an ecclesiastical official, but the causes that changed the character of the advocatus operated also in the case of the vidame. With the crystallization of the system in the 12th century the office of vidame. As a title, however, it was less common. A vidame usually took his title from the see he represented, but not infrequently a vidame styled himself, not after his official fief, thus the vidame de Picquigny was the representative of the Bishop of Amiens, the vidame de Gerberoy of the Bishop of Beauvais. In many sees there was no vidame, the functions being exercised by a viscount or a châtelain, with the growth of the central power and of that of the towns and cities, the vidames gradually lost all importance, and the title became merely honorary. In return, he usually had a house near the palace, a domain within and without the city. Prince of the church Nouveau Larousse Illustré This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Vidame
–
Heraldic coronet of Vidame
15.
Baron
–
Baron is a title of honour, often hereditary. The word baron comes from the Old French baron, from a Late Latin baro man, servant, soldier, cornutus in the first century already reports a word barones which he took to be of Gaulish origin. During the Ancien Régime, French baronies were very much like Scottish ones, feudal landholders were entitled to style themselves baron if they were nobles, a roturier could only be a seigneur de la baronnie. These baronies could be sold freely until 1789 when feudal law was abolished. The title of baron was assumed as a titre de courtoisie by many nobles, emperor Napoléon created a new empire nobility, in which baron was the second lowest title. The titles followed a line of descent and could not be purchased. In 1815, King Louis XVIII created a new system based on the British model. Baron-peer was the lowest title, but the heirs to pre-1789 barons could remain barons, as could the elder sons of viscount-peers and this peerage system was abolished in 1848. The wife of a Freiherr is called a Freifrau or sometimes Baronin, families which had always held this status were called Uradel, and were heraldically entitled to a three pointed coronet. Families which had been ennobled at a point in time had seven points on their coronet. These families held their fief in vassalage from a suzerain, the holder of an allodial barony was thus called a Free Lord, or Freiherr. Subsequently, sovereigns in Germany conferred the title of Freiherr as a rank in the nobility, today, as of 1919 on, there is no legal privilege associated with hereditary titles in Germany. In modern, republican Germany, Freiherr and Baron remain heritable only as part of the legal surname, as opposed to this, hereditary titles have been banned completely in Austria. Still, in countries, honorary styles like His/her Highness, Serenity, etc. persists in social use as a form of utmost courtesy. As a result, German barons have been more numerous than those of countries where primogeniture with respect to title inheritance prevails as France. In Italy, barone was the lowest rank of feudal nobility except for that of signore or vassallo, the title of baron was most generally introduced into southern Italy by the Normans during the 11th century. Whereas originally a barony might consist of two or more manors, by 1700 we see what were formerly single manors erected into baronies, counties or even marquisates. Since the early 1800s, when feudalism was abolished in the various Italian states, the untitled younger son of a baron is a nobile dei baroni and in informal usage might be called a baron, while certain baronies devolve to heirs male general
Baron
–
The robe worn by a baron during his creation ceremony in 17th-century Britain, engraved by
Wenceslas Hollar.
Baron
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Baron
–
A Scottish Baron's
helmet
16.
Baronet
–
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess, is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The practice of awarding baronetcies was originally introduced in England in the 14th century and was used by James I of England in 1611 as a means of raising funds. A baronetcy is the only British hereditary honour that is not a peerage, with the exception of the Anglo-Irish Black Knight, White Knight, Baronets are not deemed members of the nobility, but rather, titled gentry. Their social rank is equivalent to the petty nobility in some countries of continental Europe. The term baronet has medieval origins, Sir Thomas de La More, describing the Battle of Boroughbridge, mentioned that baronets took part, along with barons and knights. Edward III is known to have created eight baronets in 1328, at least one, Sir William de La Pole in 1340, was created for payment of money. Whether or not these early creations were hereditary, all have died out, in 1619 James I established the Baronetage of Ireland, Charles I in 1625 created the Baronetages of Scotland and Nova Scotia. The new baronets were each required to pay 2,000 marks or to support six settlers for two years. Over a hundred of these baronetcies, now known as Scottish baronetcies. As a result of the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, following the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, new creations were styled as baronets of the United Kingdom. Under royal warrants of 1612 and 1613, certain privileges were accorded to baronets, firstly, no person or persons should have place between baronets and the younger sons of peers. These privileges were extended to baronets of Ireland, and for baronets of Scotland the privilege of depicting the Arms of Nova Scotia as an augmentation of honour, the former applies to this day for all baronets of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom created subsequently. The title of baronet was initially conferred upon noblemen who lost the right of summons to Parliament. A similar title of rank was banneret. Like knights, baronets are accorded the style Sir before their first name, baronetesses in their own right use Dame, also before their first name, while wives of baronets use Lady followed by the husbands surname only, this by longstanding courtesy. Wives of baronets are not baronetesses, only women holding baronetcies in their own right are so styled, unlike knighthoods—which apply to the recipient only—a baronetcy is hereditarily entailed. With some exceptions granted with special remainder by letters patent, baronetcies descend through the male line, a full list of extant baronets appears in Burkes Peerage and Baronetage, which also published a record of extinct baronetcies. A baronetcy is not a peerage, so baronets like knights and junior members of families are commoners
Baronet
Baronet
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Baronet
Baronet
17.
Knight
–
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, 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, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, furthermore, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations. Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, cavalier, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which also meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines 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 warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, and, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the later Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, equus, 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, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and 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 from which European knighthood may have been derived. Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
Knight
–
David I of Scotland knighting a squire
Knight
–
The English fighting the French knights at the
Battle of Crécy in 1346.
Knight
–
Khosrau II dressed as a mounted Persian knight riding on his favourite horse, Shabdiz. One of the oldest known reliefs of a heavily armoured cavalryman, from the Sassanid empire, Taqé Bostan, Iran (4th century).
Knight
–
A Norman knight slaying
Harold Godwinson (
Bayeux tapestry, c. 1070). The rank of knight developed in the 12th century from the mounted warriors of the 10th and 11th centuries.
18.
Gentleman
–
In modern parlance, the term gentleman refers to any man of good, courteous conduct. It may also refer to all men collectively, as in indications of gender-separated facilities, the modern female equivalent is lady. In its original meaning, the term denoted a man of the lowest rank of the English gentry, standing below an esquire, in this sense, the word equates with the French gentilhomme, which latter term has been, in Great Britain, long confined to the peerage. Maurice Keen points to the category of gentlemen in this context as thus constituting the nearest contemporary English equivalent of the noblesse of France, by social courtesy the designation came to include any well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus. To a degree, gentleman came to signify a man with a derived from property, a legacy, or some other source. The term was used of those who could not claim any other title or even the rank of esquire. Widening further, it became a politeness for all men, as in the phrase Ladies, chaucer, in the Meliboeus, says, Certes he sholde not be called a gentil man, that. For no creation could make a man of blood than he is. The word gentleman, used in the wide sense with which birth, William Harrison, writing in the late 1500s, says, gentlemen be those whom their race and blood, or at the least their virtues, do make noble and known. Being called also to the wars what soever it cost him, he will both array and arm himself accordingly, and show the more manly courage, and all the tokens of the person which he representeth. No man hath hurt by it but himself, who peradventure will go in wider buskins than his legs will bear, or as our proverb saith, now and then bear a bigger sail than his boat is able to sustain. In this way, Shakespeare himself was demonstrated, by the grant of his coat of arms, to be no vagabond, the inseparability of arms and gentility is shown by two of his characters, Petruchio, I swear Ill cuff you if you strike again. Katharine, So may you lose your arms, If you strike me, you are no gentleman, And if no gentleman, however, although only a gentleman could have a coat of arms, the coat of arms recognised rather than created the status. Thus, all armigers were gentlemen, but not all gentlemen were armigers, hence, Henry V, act IV, scene iii, For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother, be he neer so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed Shall think themselves accursd they were not here And hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks That fought with us upon St. Crispins Day. At the last, the wearing of a sword on all occasions was the outward and visible sign of a gentleman, the custom survives in the sword worn with court dress. The suggestion is discredited by an examination, in England, of the records of the High Court of Chivalry and, in Scotland, the Far East held similar ideas to the West of what a gentleman is, which are based on Confucian principles. The term Jūnzǐ is a crucial to classical Confucianism
Gentleman
–
Richard Brathwait's The Complete English Gentleman (1630), showing the exemplary qualities of a gentleman
Gentleman
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Gentleman
–
Raja Ravi Varma, Painting of a Gentleman; India, 19th century.
19.
Nobility
–
The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and 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. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
Nobility
–
Detail from
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry), c. 1410, month of April
Nobility
–
Nobility offered protection in exchange for service
Nobility
–
French aristocrats, c. 1774
Nobility
–
A French political cartoon of the three orders of
feudal society (1789). The rural third estate carries the clergy and the nobility.
20.
Monarch
–
A monarch is the sovereign head of state in a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power in the state, alternatively, an individual may become monarch by conquest, acclamation or a combination of means. A monarch usually reigns for life or until abdication, if a young child is crowned the monarch, a regent is often appointed to govern until the monarch reaches the requisite adult age to rule. A monarch can reign in multiple monarchies simultaneously, for example, the monarchy of Canada and the monarchy of the United Kingdom are separate states, but they share the same monarch through personal union. Monarchs, as such, bear a variety of titles — king or queen, prince or princess, emperor or empress, archduke, duke or grand duke, Prince is sometimes used as a generic term to refer to any monarch regardless of title, especially in older texts. A king can also be a husband and a queen can be a kings wife. If both people in a reign, neither person is generally considered to be a consort. Monarchy is political or sociocultural in nature, and is associated with hereditary rule. Most monarchs, both historically and in the present day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, agnatic seniority, Salic law, etc. In an elective monarchy, the monarch is elected but otherwise serves as any other monarch, historical examples of elective monarchy include the Holy Roman Emperors and the free election of kings of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In recent centuries, many states have abolished the monarchy and become republics, advocacy of government by a republic is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchy is called monarchism. A principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of national leadership. In cases where the monarch serves mostly as a ceremonial figure real leadership does not depend on the monarch, a form of government may in fact be hereditary without being considered monarchy, such as a family dictatorship. Monarchies take a variety of forms, such as the two co-princes of Andorra, positions held simultaneously by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgel and the elected President of France. Similarly, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia is considered a monarch despite only holding the position for five years at a time, hereditary succession within one patrilineal family has been most common, with preference for children over siblings, sons over daughters. Other European realms practice one form or another of primogeniture, whereunder a lord was succeeded by his eldest son or, if he had none, by his brother, the system of tanistry was semi-elective and gave weight also to ability and merit. The Salic law, practiced in France and in the Italian territories of the House of Savoy, in most fiefs, in the event of the demise of all legitimate male members of the patrilineage, a female of the family could succeed. Spain today continues this model of succession law, in the form of cognatic primogeniture, in more complex medieval cases, the sometimes conflicting principles of proximity and primogeniture battled, and outcomes were often idiosyncratic
Monarch
–
The nine European Monarchs who attended the
funeral of
King Edward VII of Britain, photographed at
Windsor Castle on 20 May 1910. Standing, from left to right:
King Haakon VII of Norway,
Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria,
King Manuel II of Portugal,
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany,
King George I of Greece and
King Albert I of Belgium. Seated, from left to right:
King Alfonso XIII of Spain,
King George V of Britain and
King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
Monarch
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Monarch
Monarch
–
Ramesses II, the third
Pharaoh of the
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
21.
Latin language
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin language
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin language
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin language
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin language
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
22.
Roman Republic
–
It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
Roman Republic
–
Route of Pyrrhus of Epirus
Roman Republic
–
Roman consul accompanied by two
lictors
Roman Republic
–
Gaius Gracchus, tribune of the people, presiding over the
Plebeian Council
Roman Republic
–
A Roman
denarius struck in 56 BC showing on one side the bust of the
Goddess Diana, and on the reverse the Roman general
Lucius Cornelius Sulla is offered an olive branch by his ally
Bocchus I as the captive
Jugurtha kneels beside Sulla with his hands bound.
23.
Germanic peoples
–
The Germanic peoples are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin. They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the term Germanic originated in classical times when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes. Tribes referred to as Germanic by Roman authors generally lived to the north, in about 222 BCE, the first use of the Latin term Germani appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ. This may simply be referring to Gaul or related people, the term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios, but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later. Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, from Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Gaul, which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This usage of the word is the origin of the concept of Germanic languages. In other classical authors the concept sometimes included regions of Sarmatia, also, at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus and others noted differences of culture which could be found on the east of the Rhine, but the theme of all these cultural references was that this was a wild and dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that required additional military vigilance. Caesar used the term Germani for a specific tribal grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine. He made clear that he was using the name in the local sense and these are the so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and descended from immigrants into Gaul. Caesar described this group of both as Belgic Gauls and as Germani. Gauls are associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not discuss languages in detail. It has been claimed, for example by Maurits Gysseling, that the names of this region show evidence of an early presence of Germanic languages. The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain, the likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani men, comparable to Welsh ger near, Old Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- near, garach neighborly. Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant noisy, cf. Breton/Cornish garm shout, however, here the vowel does not match, nor does the vowel length ). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology *gēr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old High German Ger, Old Norse geirr. However, the form gēr seems far too advanced phonetically for the 1st century, has a vowel where a short one is expected. The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language
Germanic peoples
–
Germanic
Thing (governing assembly), drawn after the depiction in a relief of the
Column of Marcus Aurelius, 193 CE.
Germanic peoples
–
The gilded side of the
Trundholm sun chariot
Germanic peoples
–
The Dejbjerg wagon, National Museum of Denmark
Germanic peoples
–
2nd century to 5th century simplified migrations
24.
Celts
–
The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
Celts
–
Celtic
stele from
Galicia, 2nd century AD: “APANA·AMBO / LLI· F(ilia)·CELTICA /
SUPERTAM(arica) · / (j) MIOBRI· / AN(norum)· XXV·H(ic)·S(ita)·E(st)· / APANUS·FR(ater)· F(aciendum)·C(uravit)”
Celts
–
Core
Hallstatt territory, by the 6th century BC
Celts
–
Reconstruction of a late La Tène period settlement in Altburg near
Bundenbach (1st century BC).
Celts
–
Reconstruction of a late La Tène period settlement in
Havranok, Slovakia (2nd–1st century BC).
25.
Eastern Roman Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
Eastern Roman Empire
–
Tremissis with the image of
Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) (see
Byzantine insignia)
Eastern Roman Empire
–
Byzantine
lamellar armour klivanium (Κλιβάνιον) - a predecessor of Ottoman krug
mirror armour
Eastern Roman Empire
–
The Baptism of Constantine painted by
Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524,
fresco, Vatican City,
Apostolic Palace);
Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as
was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving
baptism until shortly before his death
Eastern Roman Empire
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls.
26.
Megas Doux
–
The megas doux was one of the highest positions in the hierarchy of the later Byzantine Empire, denoting the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy. It is sometimes given in English by the half-Latinizations megaduke or megadux. The Greek word δούξ is the Hellenized form of the Latin term dux, the Emperors brother-in-law John Doukas is usually considered to have been the first to hold the title, being raised to it in 1092, when he was tasked with suppressing the Turkish emir Tzachas. There is however a document dated to December 1085, where a monk Niketas signs as supervisor of the estates of an unnamed megas doux. From this time the megas doux was also given control of the provinces of Hellas, the Peloponnese and Crete. With the virtual disappearance of the Byzantine fleet after the Fourth Crusade, Michael VIII Palaiologos assumed the title when he became regent for John IV Laskaris, before being raised to senior co-emperor. It was also used by the Latin Empire, where, in ca,1207, the Latin emperor awarded the island of Lemnos and the hereditary title of megadux to the Venetian Filocalo Navigajoso. His descendants inherited the title and the rule of Lemnos until evicted by the Byzantines in 1278, the mid-14th century Book of Offices of Pseudo-Kodinos lists the insignia of the megas doux as a golden-red skiadion hat decorated with embroideries in the klapoton style, without veil. Alternatively, a domed skaranikon hat could be worn, again in red and gold and decorated with golden wire, with a portrait of the standing in front. The megas doux also wore a rich silk tunic, the kabbadion and his staff of office featured carved knots and knobs in gold, bordered with silver braid. Pseudo-Kodinos also records that, while the other warships flew the usual imperial flag of the cross and the firesteels and his subordinate officials were the megas droungarios tou stolou, the amēralios, the prōtokomēs, the junior droungarioi, and the junior komētes. The Serbian Empire, established in 1346 by Tsar Stefan Dushan, adopted various Byzantine titles, among them that of megas doux, holders of the office included senior noblemen such as Jovan Uglješa and Jovan Oliver. In the 1490 Valencian epic romance Tirant lo Blanc, the valiant knight Tirant the White from Brittany travels to Constantinople and this story has no basis in actual history, though it may reflect the above-mentioned cases of the office being conferred upon foreigners. The Byzantine Empire, 1025–1204, A Political History, the Late Byzantine Army, Arms and Society 1204–1453. Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West, 1258–1282, A Study in Byzantine-Latin Relations, le Drongaire de la flotte, le Grand drongaire de la flotte, le Duc de la flotte, le Mégaduc. Recherches sur les institutions byzantines, Tome I, haldon, John F. Warfare, state and society in the Byzantine world, 565–1204. Nicol, Donald M. Byzantium and Venice, A Study in Diplomatic, the Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453. The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143–1180, the Doukai, A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography
Megas Doux
–
The megas doux
Alexios Apokaukos (1341-1345), in the garb of his office.
27.
Middle Ages
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
Middle Ages
–
The
Cross of Mathilde, a
crux gemmata made for
Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the
enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in
Cologne or
Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques:
cast figurative sculpture,
filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical
cameos and
engraved gems.
Middle Ages
–
A late Roman statue
depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in
Venice
Middle Ages
–
Coin of
Theodoric
Middle Ages
–
Mosaic showing
Justinian with
the bishop of
Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers
28.
Feudal monarchies
–
Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour, there is no commonly accepted modern definition of feudalism, at least among scholars. Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R, outside a European context, the concept of feudalism is often used only by analogy, most often in discussions of feudal Japan under the shoguns, and sometimes medieval and Gondarine Ethiopia. The term feudalism has also been applied—often inappropriately or pejoratively—to non-Western societies where institutions, the term féodal was used in 17th-century French legal treatises and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective, such as feodal government. In the 18th century, Adam Smith, seeking to describe systems, effectively coined the forms feudal government. In the 19th century the adjective feudal evolved into a noun, the term feudalism is recent, first appearing in French in 1823, Italian in 1827, English in 1839, and in German in the second half of the 19th century. The term feudal or feodal is derived from the medieval Latin word feodum, the etymology of feodum is complex with multiple theories, some suggesting a Germanic origin and others suggesting an Arabic origin. Initially in medieval Latin European documents, a grant in exchange for service was called a beneficium. Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents, the first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one-hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, the most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch. Bloch said it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which means cattle and -ôd means goods. This was known as feos, a term that took on the meaning of paying for something in lieu of money. This meaning was then applied to itself, in which land was used to pay for fealty. Thus the old word feos meaning movable property changed little by little to feus meaning the exact opposite and this Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century. Another theory was put forward by Archibald R. Lewis, Lewis said the origin of fief is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomuss Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious that says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, another theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrais theory is that early forms of fief include feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others, indeed, the first use of these terms is in Languedoc, one of the least Germanic areas of Europe and bordering Muslim Spain. Further, the earliest use of feuum can be dated to 899, mounted soldiers began to secure a system of hereditary rule over their allocated land and their power over the territory came to encompass the social, political, judicial, and economic spheres
Feudal monarchies
–
Roland pledges his
fealty to
Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a
chanson de geste, c. 14th century(?)
Feudal monarchies
–
Castle – a traditional symbol of a feudal society (
Orava Castle in
Slovakia).
Feudal monarchies
–
Herr
Reinmar von Zweter, a 13th-century
Minnesinger, was depicted with his noble arms in
Codex Manesse.
Feudal monarchies
–
Harold Sacramentum Fecit Willelmo Duci (
Bayeux Tapestry)
29.
Grand Duke
–
He was defeated by the royal armies but nevertheless obtained a remarkable autonomy as a Magnus Dux, leading ultimately to Portuguese independence from the Spanish Kingdom of Castille-León. Another example was the line of self-proclaimed grand dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century and they tried -ultimately without success- to create from these territories under their control a new unified country between the Kingdom of France in the west and the Holy Roman Empire in the east. His son and successor Charles the Bold continued to use the style and title. The title magnus dux or grand duke has been used by the rulers of Lithuania, the first monarchs ever officially titled grand duke were the Medici sovereigns of Tuscany, starting from the late 16th century. This official title was granted by Pope Pius V in 1569, thus the 19th century saw a new group of monarchs titled Grand Duke in central Europe, especially in present-day Germany. A list of these is available in the grand duchy. In the same century, the ceremonial version of the title grand duke in Russia expanded massively because of the large number of progeny of the ruling House of Romanov during those decades. After the Russian conquests, the continued to be used by the Russian Emperors in their role as rulers of both Lithuania and the autonomous Finland. The Holy Roman Empire under the House of Habsburg instituted a similar non-sovereign Großfürstentum Siebenbürgen in 1765, Grand princes were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal overlords of other princes. At the time, the title was translated as king. However, Grand Princes did not have the same precedence as later Western European kings. Grand Princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs, the title Grand Prince translates to Velikiy Knjaz in Russian. The Slavic word knjaz and the Lithuanian kunigas are cognates of the word King in its meaning of Ruler. Thus, the meaning of Veliki Knjaz and Didysis Kunigas was more like Great Ruler than Grand Duke. Grand Prince Ivan IV of Muscovy was the last monarch to reign without claiming any higher title, the rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania used the title of Grand Prince, this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs after their conquest of Hungary. The Polish Kings of the Swedish House of Vasa also used the title for their non-Polish territories. The Latin title dux, which was phonetically rendered doux in Greek, was a title for imperial generals in the Late Roman Empires. Under the latter, exclusively Byzantine theme system, the commander of a theme was often styled a doux instead of the earlier strategos from the 10th century on
Grand Duke
–
Portrait of Grand Duchess
Maria Fiodorovna by Heinrich von Angeli (1874) Saint Petersburg,
Hermitage Museum
Grand Duke
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
.svg)
