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Aristocracy (from Ancient Greek ἀριστοκρατίᾱ (aristokratíā) ' rule of the best '; from ἄριστος (áristos) ' best ' and κράτος (krátos) ' power, strength ') is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats.
The House of Lords is the upper legislature of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is filled with members that are selected from the aristocracy (both hereditary titleholders and those ennobled only for their individual lives). Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy.
The aristocracy [1] is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. [2] In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient Rome, or India, aristocratic status came from belonging to a military class. It has also ...
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.
The term gradually came to be used for the lower ranks of the aristocracy, which along with the peerage had previously been considered part of the nobility. In the 16th and 17th centuries, writers referred to the peerage as the nobilitas major (Latin for "greater nobility") and the gentry as the nobilitas minor (Latin for "minor nobility ...
Artificial aristocracy, then, is the degenerative form, even the inevitable form, of meritocracy. It is the power that the naturally virtuous achieve that can and will corrupt them.
Members of the ton came from the aristocracy (nobility) and royalty. Though some wealthier members of the middle classes could marry into the lower ranks of the gentry, such unions were not completely accepted by the elite ton. Social positions could be altered or determined by income, houses, speech, manner of dress, or even etiquette.
Wood notes that "Few members of the American gentry were able to live idly off the rents of tenants as the English landed aristocracy did." [6] Some landowners, especially in the Dutch areas of Upstate New York, leased out their lands to tenants, but generally—"Plain Folk of the Old South"—ordinary farmers owned their cultivated holdings. [7]