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Traditional rank amongst European imperiality, royalty, peers, and nobility is rooted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although they vary over time and among geographic regions (for example, one region's prince might be equal to another's grand duke ), the following is a reasonably comprehensive list that provides information on both ...
The British nobility is made up of the peerage and the gentry of the British Isles.. Though the UK is today a constitutional monarchy with strong democratic elements, historically the British Isles were more predisposed towards aristocratic governance in which power was largely inherited and shared amongst a noble class.
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty . Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics.
Only those classified within the social class of royalty and upper nobility have a style of "Highness" attached before their titles. Reigning bearers of forms of Highness included grand princes, grand dukes, reigning princes, reigning dukes, and princely counts, their families, and the agnatic (of the male bloodline) descendants of emperors and kings.
It is possible for a peer to hold more than one title of nobility, and these may belong to different ranks and peerages. A peer derives his precedence from his highest-ranking title; peeresses derive their precedence in the same way, whether they hold their highest-ranking title in their own right or by marriage.
The precedence of the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Earl Marshal, the Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain are determined by the rank and class of the peerage of the holders of such offices. In Scotland, the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and the Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, if Peers, rank after the Lord Speaker of the House of ...
Sheriffs were drawn from this class, and thegns were required to attend the shire court and give judgment. For these reasons, historian David Carpenter described thegns as "the country gentry of Anglo-Saxon England". [14] High-ranking members of the church hierarchy (archbishops, bishops and abbots) paralleled the secular aristocracy.
Common European titles of monarchs (in that hierarchical order of nobility) are emperor or empress (from Latin: imperator or imperatrix), king or queen, grand duke or grand duchess, prince or princess, duke or duchess. [23]