244 



NOBILITY. 



In their case, however, it affects only the enjoyment 

 of certain privileges common to the whole l>ody of 

 nobility privileges by which the German nobility is 

 uiore strictly distinguished from the middle classes 

 of tret-men than that of any other country. In the 

 rest of Europe, not even the highest class of nobility 

 recognises this principle. In France, the royal 

 alone affords no example of a marriage contracted 

 with persons of a lower rank, though the law would 

 not have interfered. The legitimated branches of the 

 royal family, the offspring of mistresses, the princes 

 of Vendome, Verneuil, Vermandois, Maine, Toulouse, 

 Penthievre, &c., which are now extinct, Louis XIV. 

 did not hesitate, in his will, to recognise as capable 

 of succession to the French throne, in spite of their 

 descent, not merely from parents of unequal rank, 

 but even from an illegitimate connexion ; and the 

 same right could never have been contested in regard 

 to children of a legitimate connexion between parents 

 of unequal rank. In the noble families of France, 

 the rank of the mother was likewise of no conse- 

 quence ; the whole importance of the family rested 

 on the lineage of the father. The same is the case 

 in England, where intermarriages between the fa- 

 milies of respectable citizens (merchants, bankers, 

 brewers, advocates, &c.) and the highest nobility are 

 not uncommon. Thus the wife of the celebrated 

 Whitbread, speaker in parliament, and citizen and 

 brewer of London, was a sister of earl Grey. The 

 first wife of king James II. was the daughter of chan- 

 cellor Hyde, who afterwards became earl of Claren- 

 don ; and her daughters, Mary and Anne, succeeded 

 to the throne of England. Similar examples may be 

 found in other countries. In Germany alone, the 

 interests of the kindred of princes, as well as the ex- 

 clusive claims of the nobility to the chapters and pre- 

 bends of the ecclesiastical orders, have produced 

 those rigid principles above-mentioned. Germany 

 is likewise the only country which affords an exam- 

 ple of a select nobility composed of reigning families 

 and princes, who, besides the right of sovereignty 

 over their own territories, had a part in the govern- 

 ment of the empire, by their seat and vote in the 

 diet, or, at least, a share in the collective vote of the 

 prelates, or of the four bodies of counts. For some 

 rights of sovereignty belonged also to the knights of 

 the empire, who did not belong to the select nobility. 

 The limits of this select nobility were extremely un- 

 certain and contested, though very important to be 

 settled, on account of the restrictions on the marriage 

 of its members. The rank of the select nobility was 

 partly personal, partly hereditary. The former was 

 attached to ecclesiastical princes, bishops, and ab- 

 bots, many of whom were, at the same time, actual 

 sovereigns ; but many possessed only the dignity of 

 princes of the empire, without the rights of sove- 

 reignty. In most of these ecclesiastical principalities, 

 the German nobility had excluded nntitled men of 

 learning and talent, against the will of the pope, 

 and his express order, promulgated in the treaty of 

 Westphalia (article v., section 17). The highest 

 degree of hereditary nobility was peculiar to the 

 families of the princes and counts of the empire, 

 and confined to Germany. It is true many 

 French, Italian, Spanish, and English families had 

 the title of princes, dukes, and marquises (English 

 dukes and marquises are also called princes in official 

 documents), but the German princes considered few 

 of them as their equals. To this class belong, in 

 France, those six foreign families which enjoyed at 

 the French courts the rights of princes Strangers, on 

 account of their relationship with sovereign houses, 

 or on account of their descent from former sovereigns 

 of Bretagne and Aquitania. These families in France 

 were those of Lotharingia, Savoy, Grimaldi (princes 



of Monaco), Rohan, Latour il'Auvergne (dukea and 

 princes of Bouillon). Some Polish families belong 

 also to this class, as the Radzivills, Czartoriskis, &c. 

 In Sweden and Denmark, a select nobility of this 

 kind has never existed. Though many German fa- 

 milies of this rank have lost their sovereignty, yet 

 the act of the German confederation has conceded to 

 them the highest rank of nobility, equal to that of 

 the sovereign houses. There was still a strict dis-, 

 tinction in Germany between the ancient princes, who 

 liad risen to this dignity before 1580, and those of a 

 more recent date. The more, however, the power of 

 the German principalities increased, the more the 

 importance of the nobility decreased. On this ac- 

 count, a society was formed in 1815, called the chain 

 of nobility, for the purpose of restoring and promoting 

 the interests of the nobles ; but it met with little 

 success. The British nobility, composing the house 

 of lords, consists of five ranks : duke, marquis, earl, 

 viscount, baron. The nobility in France is designat- 

 ed by the title peres de France ; for both the ancient 

 and modern titles of nobility, as prince, due, marquis, 

 comte, vicomte, baron, occur also without peerage. 

 The lower nobility (gentry in Britain), considered as 

 a separate rank, is of later origin. In Britain, every 

 one belongs to it who does not engage in any mean 

 employment, and, for this reason, is entitled to the 

 appellation esquire, and a coat of arms. In Spain, 

 any one may call himself hidalgo whose ancestors 

 have not been engaged in mean employments ; and 

 in France this dignity was connected with many even 

 insignificant offices, and, of course, very easily ob- 

 tained. Great importance was, however, attached to 

 ancient nobility, that is, nobility which could not be 

 traced to its origin. Nobility of 400 years' duration 

 was requisite for a presentation at court. The Star, 

 thing of Norway, as was mentioned above, abolished 

 nobility in 1821. The Russian nobility, though its 

 origin is not directly derived from the German tribes, 

 has appropriated to itself all its degrees and titles. 

 (See Russia). In Livonia and Esthonia, the ancient 

 nobility, founded on conquest, is, as yet, in existence. 

 The dominion of the Russian nobility over their 

 peasants gives a political importance to this rank, 

 though destitute of the rights of sovereignty. 



Nobility was very early conferred by patent. As 

 soon as the nobles had assumed the character of a 

 distinct rank in the state, the monarchs also availed 

 themselves of their right of conferring degrees of 

 nobility, and insisted upon the principle that, in a 

 monarchy, no privilege could be more ancient, or 

 could have any other origin, than the prerogative of 

 the monarch himself. Philip III., therefore, first 

 began (1270) to grant charters of nobility in France, 

 and Germany soon followed his example. The de- 

 grees of the lower nobility in Germany were, 1. The 

 title f^on ; 2. Edler von ; 3. Ritter ; 4. Bannerherr; 

 5. Freyherr ; 6. Count. Their privileges were ori- 

 ginally of little importance ; but, in several countries, 

 they were enlarged to a considerable extent by law, 

 as well as by custom and practice. They enjoyed 

 immunity from taxes, and an exclusive right to the 

 highest public offices, especially in the army. The 

 most important of these privileges have, in modern 

 times, either been limited or entirely abolished, be- 

 cause they were inconsistent with justice, and an ob- 

 stacle to the prosperity of the state. The French 

 revolution first deprived the nobles of that country of 

 their oppressive privileges and exclusive rights, as 

 that of jurisdiction, &c. (decree of August 4, 1789); 

 and, after the overthrow of the feudal system by a 

 number of laws, the decree of June 19, 1790, abo- 

 lished hereditary rank entirely. The senate under 

 Napoleon (August 14, 1806), and the decree of March 

 1, 1808, gave rise to a new hereditary nobility, with 



