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The actual rank of a title-holder in Germany depended not only on the nominal rank of the title, but also the degree of sovereignty exercised, the rank of the title-holder's suzerain, and the length of time the family possessed its status within the nobility (Uradel, Briefadel, altfürstliche, neufürstliche, see: German nobility).
The burgher class was a social class consisting of municipal residents (Latin: cives), that is, free persons subject to municipal law, formed in the Middle Ages. These free persons were subject to city law , medieval town privileges , a municipal charter , or German town law .
Spellings have been modernized.) The separation into two groups seems to follow the contemporary social distinction between noble and common yeomen who share the same rank. [1] This same distinction is found in the 1347 Ordinance, where Yeomen of the King's chamber are contained in the same list with Yeomen of offices in household. [14]
Higher-ranking noble families of the Niederer Adel bore such hereditary titles as Edler (lord), Ritter (knight), Freiherr (or baron) and Graf. Although most German counts belonged officially to the lower nobility, those who were mediatised belonged to the Hochadel , the heads of their families being entitled to be addressed as Erlaucht ...
The households of medieval kings were in many ways simply aristocratic households on a larger scale: as the Burgundian court chronicler Georges Chastellain observed of the splendidly ordered court of the dukes of Burgundy, "after the deeds and exploits of war, which are claims to glory, the household is the first thing that strikes the eye, and ...
The social class of franklin, meaning (latterly) a person not only free (not in feudal servitude) but also owning the freehold of land, and yet barely even a member of the "landed gentry" [2] [3] [4] (knights, esquires and gentlemen, the lower grades of the upper class), let alone of the nobility (barons, viscounts, earls/counts, marquis, dukes), evidently represents the beginnings of a real ...
In the Early Medieval period, any well-equipped horseman could be described as a "knight", or in Latin, miles. [5] In the course of the 12th century knighthood became a social rank with a distinction being made between milites gregarii (non-noble cavalrymen) and milites nobiles (true knights). [6]
The medieval Church was an institution where social mobility was most likely achieved up to a certain level (generally to that of vicar general or abbot/abbess for commoners). Typically, only nobility were appointed to the highest church positions (bishops, archbishops, heads of religious orders, etc.), although low nobility could aspire to the ...