Ranks of Nobility, Explained

have you ever heard of prince charles being referred to as the duke of cornwall or read the poetry by lord byron or simply watched an episode of downton abbey following the exploits of the family of the earl of grantham well you may have wondered where these terms come from and what they mean these titles duke lord earl are all related to nobility the nobility was and is a social class with its origins in feudal europe during the middle ages feudalism was a social and political system in which a king of a country bequeathed land and political privileges to nobles in exchange for services to the crown which usually meant fighting in war as time turned to the late medieval and early modern periods this system became more hierarchical and more convoluted arriving at the somewhat confusing system we have today in this video i will be disentangling some of these complexities as i explain the ranks of nobility the rings of nobility changed from place to place and change through time some systems were very complex like in the holy roman empire whose dizzying geographical and political complexity was mirrored in the structure of its nobility and some systems were more simple like in the empire of france where napoleon simplified the previously complex system of the old regime we will be using the british system because it's the best known and is still in use to this day there are five ranks in the british system in order of presidents they are duke marquess earl vi count and baron each with their own female equivalents in anglo-saxon england before the norman conquest in 1066 there was but one rank in the nobility the earl the term earl has two possible origins either coming from the old norse ural meaning leader or elder men from the anglo-saxon which meant basically the same thing the female equivalent countess gives a hint to what the rank was called in continental europe count yes like that guy the earl was the basic noble lord in feudal england controlling the different counties yes that's where that name comes from of the land earls are to be referred to as lord so and so and countesses as ladies so and so after the norman conquest william the conqueror introduced the baron in normandy the term baron meant much the same as earl a representative of the king in different areas of the country in this case called a barony but during the melding of anglo-saxon and norman societies both terms were used and eventually baron became the rank of nobility below that of earl barons and earls who themselves were automatically given the title of baron were often called to the king's council this tradition eventually evolved into the house of lords the female equivalent to a baron is a baroness and while you may hear barons referred to as baron so-and-so the correct form of a dress is like with earl's lord and lady in the year 1337 the title of duke was introduced to england when king edward iii gave his son the title of duke of cornwall after losing his own title of duke of normandy the term goes back to the roman empire and was used in the german and french lands after the fall of rome originally the title of duke was only held by royals but was later expanded it is the highest rank of nobility and the title is only held by 24 people today in britain they traditionally ruled over duchies the female equivalent is duchess and dukes and duchesses are to be referred to as your grace these three ranks duke earl and barren are the building blocks of the system and subsequent ranks are derivatives of these ones a marquis is the second highest rank above earl but below duke the term comes from the germanic march meaning borderland so a marquis translates to oral or count of a march the word margrave was used in the germanic lands before it came to england being introduced by richard ii in 1385 whose brother-in-law was the mar grave of brandenburg the title marquis was actually quite unpopular in the time after it was introduced many earls were insulted that the rank was placed above their own the reason giving for its higher ranking was because amarquis's territory was on the border and therefore strategically more important than a normal county the female equivalent is martian s they are referred to as lord and lady and in some circumstances as the most honorable so-and-so lastly we have the vi count as the term implies the name comes from vice count like vice president and the post originated as the office of the deputy to account or the sheriff of a county but later it became a hereditary rank in the holy roman empire in the 12th century it first came to england in 1440 and was placed above the rank of baron the female equivalent is vi countess they are referred to as lord and lady so those are the five ranks of the british nobility again they differ from other historical structures of nobility elsewhere in europe and when you study those systems some questions may arise like why our princes sometimes placed below dukes and why are some countries not ruled by a king but a prince or an archduke and wait what is an archduke anyway and what's a baronet well those sorts of questions will have to wait for another day thanks for watching okay a baronet is like a hereditary knighthood sort of it's in the british system but it's not considered noble whatever anyway thanks for watching my video on nobility subscribe if you haven't already like the video if you liked it comment letting me know what you think check out some of my other videos if you want to learn more bye

Channel: The Generalist Papers

Views: 2,016,964

Keywords: nobility, great britain history, ranks of nobility, ranks of nobility england, medieval history, european history lecture, educational, history, downton abbey, english nobility, british peerage system, duke, earl, baron, count, feudalism in medieval europe, viscount, marquess, duke of cornwall, monarchy, great britain, united kingdom, british royal family, titles of nobility, middle ages, house of lords

Id: Op8fEbxgqxY

Length: 6min 31sec (391 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 02 2021