People are always fascinated about ‘the other’, ‘those people’, ‘them’, and ‘how the other half live’. Love them or hate them, people at the top – be they kings, queens, presidents, or multibillionaire business moguls, the Nouveau Riche and the Old Money, the landed gentry and the aristocracy – they have always held a fascination for us, whether we would wish to admit this fact or not.
Reality TV shows like ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’, ‘Pads’ and ‘The lives of Super-Rich Billionaires’ and countless others, continue to draw crowds because they allow us to see into a world that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience…unless we were really, really well-connected and had lots of friends in high places.
In this posting, I’ll be looking at the original celebrities – the aristocracy. Before the days of A-list actors, fashionistas, socialites and boppy boy-bands, the ‘rich and famous’ were those situated in traditional positions of power – royalty, aristocracy, and so-on. There are many aristocratic titles, and I’ll be using the traditional British aristocratic ranking system for this posting (yes, there is a ranking-system), but I’ll include as many titles as I can. So, let’s begin…
Ranks and Titles
Title: Emperor (Fem: Empress)
Area of Rulership: Empire
Form of Address: Your Majesty
On the royal-aristocratic pyramid of power, the emperor sits at the very pinnacle. In the past, there were a lot of emperors – the Emperor of China, the Emperor of Japan, the Holy Roman Emperor, Ancient Roman Emperors, King-Emperors, etc.
The only emperor officially recognised in the world today is the Emperor of Japan. The last Emperor of China was dethroned in 1912, and abdicated in the 1920s. His home, the Imperial Palace in Peking, is now the Forbidden City Museum. It remains the largest palace-complex in the world by sheer size.
Title: King (Fem. Queen)
Area of Rulership: Kingdom
Form of Address: Your Majesty
Below the Emperor comes the King. At one time in history, there were hundreds of kings all over the world. Before the rise of modern nation-states as we know them today, places like China, Europe, Britain, India and many others had loads of little kings ruling little kingdoms. The idea that a king ruled an entire country is a pretty modern concept; Italy and Germany only became the countries that we recognise today in the 1870s, which isn’t that long ago!
While the days of loads of little kings and little kingdoms are gone, there are still a lot of kings and queens around. Britain, Spain, Cambodia, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Malaysia, Thailand, and Tonga, are just some of the countries which are still kingdoms. Some of these countries even lost or gave up their royal families, only for them to be reinstated (or ‘restored’, which is the official term) later on by popular demand. These include England (1660), Spain (1975), and Cambodia (1993). And they’re not the only ones – almost since the day of his birth, Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia has been fighting to get the Yugoslav Monarchy restored, despite the fact that he doesn’t live there, and nor does he speak a word of Yugoslavian! The monarchy was forced to flee from their homeland in the 1940s during the Second World War and couldn’t return home again due to the rise of communism. Ever since, the Yugoslavian Royal Family (now based in Britain), have been kings (or at least princes) without a country.
By the way, a king always outranks a Queen. And because nobody can ever outrank the monarch in precedence, a queen regnant (a queen who inherited the throne and rules in her own right) is never married to a king, since her husband would then outrank her, and nobody can outrank the queen. That’s why her husband is given the title of Prince, Duke, or some other lesser title. A queen who is the wife of a ruling king is known as a Queen Consort.
The one and only Prince Consort in history was Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria, who received the title at Victoria’s insistence, when the government insisted that she couldn’t give him the title of ‘King’ (for the reasons stated above).
In most countries today, a king is a ceremonial figurehead who acts as an ambassador for the culture, history, and social harmony of his kingdom. But in times past, kings were genuine military leaders. While today this role is largely of a morale-boosting nature and their position as head of the armed forces (in most countries) is purely ceremonial, in the past, being king really did involve going into battle, sword swinging and guns blazing! The last English king to ride into battle alongside his troops was George II, in the 1700s!
While kings who rode into battle with their troops, drums playing and colours flying is a romantic and gallant image, the truth was that while kings were often the most heavily armed, armoured and protected individuals on the battlefield, they were just as susceptible to danger as everybody else. King Richard I, of Richard-the-Lionheart fame, was killed in battle in 1199 when he was shot in the shoulder…by a little boy wielding a crossbow!
Title: Prince (Fem. Princess).
Area of Rulership: Principality
Form of Address: Your Royal Highness
Aah, princes. We like princes! Tall, young, dashing and handsome! Everybody knows what a prince is, and everybody has this image in their heads of what a prince should be. Someone rich, accomplished, charming, sweet, someone who is irresistible to women, and who should, ideally, have some sort of militaristic background. Not for nothing has Disney been milking this cow for nearly 100 years, and the Brothers Grimm before that! Alongside the Prince is the Princess, what every little girl aspires to be, or at least treated like.
Princes are traditionally the male children and grandchildren of monarchical rulers. In popular lore, princes are the cute hotties who rock the best threads at parties, slay dragons, rescue damsels in distress, and who have absolutely scandalous social lives. In some respects, none of that has changed!
Princes are typically divided into two categories – those who are the children of monarchs, and those who are monarchs in their own right. A prince who rules as a monarch rules an area of land known as a principality (eg.: The Principality of Monaco) and is known as a Sovereign Prince. A prince who is heir-apparent to a throne and kingdom is typically known as a Crown Prince (as in, the next person to inherit the crown). In Britain, the same title is the Prince of Wales.
Famous princes throughout history included playboy Prince Edward (Edward VII of England), Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie), and Henry, Prince of Wales (later Henry V), who was shot in the face by a bow and arrow in 1403. Unlike his predecessor Richard the Lionheart, Henry survived his brush with death. The arrow missed his left eye by milimeters and almost severed his spinal-cord. Disinfection of the wound using honey, and careful surgery successfully extracted the armour-piercing arrowhead from his skull, and he went on to live for another nine years!
Title: Duke (Fem. Duchess) Alt.: Herzog (German).
Area of Rulership: Duchy
Form of Address: Your Royal Highness/Your Grace
And so, from titles of royalty, we move down to titles of aristocracy or nobility, also known as the ‘peerage’. Top of the tree is the Duke. The name of this particular title (a ‘dukedom’) comes from the Latin ‘Dux’, meaning ‘leader’. There are two types of dukes – Royal dukes, and aristocratic dukes. A royal duke is a prince (son of a sovereign ruler) who has been given an aristocratic title, usually upon marriage (eg. Duke of Cambridge, for Prince William). Despite this, they retain their royal form of address as ‘Your Royal Highness’.
Slightly below this is the aristocratic duke. Traditionally, dukedoms (indeed, all aristocratic titles) were given as rewards for exceptional military or civil service. One of the most famous examples of this is Arthur Wellesley – the Duke of Wellington. Dukedoms are awarded so rarely that in Britain, they’re almost dying out!
Title: Marquess (Fem. Marchioness). Alt.: Marquis (French), Margrave (German).
Area of Rulership: Marquisite or March.
Form of Address: My Lord
In the world of aristocratic titles, the marquess, or marquis (pronounced “Marr-key”) is possibly one of the least-known. Let’s face it, there aren’t exactly a lot of them around. A marquess was originally the title given to someone who ruled over a borderland between two countries, and the land they ruled was known as a march or marquisite. Possibly the most famous marquis known to people in modern times are the Marquis de Sade…after whom the sexual practice of ‘Sadism’ is named…and Gilbert du Motier – the Marquis de Lafayette, of American Revolutionary fame.
Born into a noble French family, the Marquis de Lafayette traveled to America in the late 1700s looking for adventure and got far more than he bargained for! Although he had absolutely NO military experience at the time, he found himself a natural leader and commander, and was instrumental in winning or helping to win, many crucial battles in the American Revolutionary War. Upon return to France, after the war, the marquis was arrested and imprisoned during the French Revolution when he tried to flee into the Netherlands. Members of his extended family were either arrested and imprisoned, or lost their heads to Madame La Guillotine.
Although he was nominally an American citizen, the American ambassador (based in The Hague) was unable to secure his release from prison. This was later achieved through the intervention of Napoleon Bonaparte who had the Lafayette family struck off a list of enemies of the state and all surviving members (including the Marquis, his son, daughters, wife and other relatives) were eventually all released from prison.
In 1824, the marquis was invited to the United States by the American government, and he came as an official guest of President Monroe, to participate in celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the American republic.
Title: Earl
Area of Rulership: Shire
Form of Address: My Lord
Apart from dukes, earls are the highest level of aristocracy that most people are familiar with. Lord Grantham in the Downton Abbey series, is the Earl of Grantham. As with sovereign princes, dukedoms, and marquesses, earldoms are hereditary through the male line, going to the first surviving son of the title-holder (or if no sons survive or were born in the first place, then to the next male-line inheritor, typically a brother or cousin).
Title: Count (Fem. Countess). Alt.: Comte (French), Graf (German).
Area of Rulership: County
Form of Address: My Lord
The title of ‘count’ isn’t that common in British nobility, but it is very common on the Continent. Countries as diverse as France, Poland, Germany and many others, have long held traditions of including the title of ‘Count’ in their aristocratic heirarchy. A count traditionally ruled over a ‘county’.
In modern society, the most famous count, is, of course, the Transylvanian vampire-nobleman, Count Dracula! Dracula is based on the ancient Wallachian prince, Vlad Dracul, also known as “Vlad the Impaler”…and that isn’t some cutesy nickname given to him by his lovers, either, but rather for how he tortured and killed his hundreds of enemies – by impaling them on wooden stakes and leaving them to die.
Title: Viscount (Fem. Viscountess)
Area of Rulership: N/A
Form of Address: My Lord
“You have to think about your style! What’s that village where your father was curate?”
“Upstairs, Downstairs”
“Upper Burnham Trenton”
“No, no. Give me another place, nearby”.
“Havisham, two miles away?”
“That’ll do very nicely. Viscount Bellamy of Havisham. Has style!…wouldn’t mind it myself!”
Unless you’ve ever watched that exchange between Lord Bellamy and Sir Geoffrey Dillon in the classic 1970s TV show “Upstairs, Downstairs”, most people in everyday life have probably never heard of the title of viscount (pronounced ‘vy-count’). The most famous viscount familiar to the majority of people today is probably Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, the Viscount Nelson, who earned his titles (as well as an amputated arm, leg, and the loss of an eye) during his gallant naval actions at the turn of the 19th century.
Upon being informed that Nelson had been hit by a sharpshooter’s bullet during the famous Battle of Cape Trafalgar, King George III is claimed to have said that “we have lost more than we have gained”. The bullet that killed Admiral Nelson, extracted from his corpse after his death, is a museum-exhibit today.
Title: Baron (Fem. Baroness) Alt.: Freiherr (German), translating as “Free Lord”.
Area of Rulership: Barony
Form of Address: Sir
The lowest of the hereditary titles (ie – a title which can be passed down, father to son), Baron was originally given to warriors or knights as a reward for exceptional military service to their king. In recognition of this gallantry, the title of Baron (which entitles the holder to be addressed as ‘Sir…’), was typically hereditary in nature.
A lot of baronies were granted to knights who had served William I (The Conqueror) with distinction in the 1060s and 1070s. 150 years later, it would be most of these barons who attempted to check the power of the unpopular King John, by forcing him to sign the Magna Carta Cive Libertatum – the Great Charter of Liberties.
A slightly lesser title below that of Baron is that of Baronet (in German ‘Ritter’, or ‘Hereditary Knight’). Like most of these titles, a baronetcy is also a hereditary title and like a baron, a baronet is also titled as ‘Sir’.
Baronetcies are among the most common titles given to fictional characters (one look at Wikipedia’s list on the subject would convince anybody of this!), probably because they’re uncomplicated, but still sound stylish. The murdered Sir Charles, and his nephew and heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, in Sherlock Holmes’ “Hound of the Baskervilles” adventure, are both baronets.
Title: Knight
Area of Rulership: N/A
Form of Address: Sir
Like kings and princes, knights have also been heavily mythologised. While the whole trope of the ‘knight in shining armour’ certainly existed, that’s about all that was really true of medieval knights. Most knights did not follow the code of Chivalry and most knights were not what we’d think of as being gallant, honourable warriors doing deeds of daring do, to win the love of maidens fair!
In actuality, most knights barely followed chivalry, and when they did, they only followed the parts that were convenient to them, when it was convenient for them to follow them. That said, being a knight did involve heavy training. To be deserving of the title of ‘Sir Knight’, you had to undergo a grueling fifteen-year training period starting from the age of seven! If you showed enough prowess at blade and steed, and were suitably ballsy enough, then in your late teens or early twenties, typically between about 18-21, you might be made a knight!
The knighting ceremony typically involved the act of the liege lord or ruler laying the sword across a knight’s shoulders (something that still happens today) and then – slapping the knight in the face!…something which does NOT still happen today! Exactly what the slap was or why it died out is unknown, but it’s generally seen as an act of dominance, to make it clear to the knight who owns him and who made him a knight to begin with!
As with most titles, a ‘knight’ today is purely ceremonial, a title given as recognition for some manner of service provided, and as a token of appreciation.
A History of Aristocracy
So, now that we know what aristocratic titles are and what order they go in, where did titles like this even come from? Although such titles (and similar titles all around the world, from Japan to China, Germany, Belgium, France, Britain and countless other places) have existed for centuries, what do they actually mean?
In times past, an aristocratic title was usually given as a reward for exceptional military or civil service. Kings and Queens had a lot of land to govern over. Since it was impossible for a king to be everywhere at once (although some certainly tried!), he often passed on the more mundane, day-to-day governing jobs (collecting taxes, ensuring state security, ruling the peasantry, etc) to his various underlings. Exactly who these underlings were, depended on their history with the king. The people chosen by the king to rule a parcel of his kingdom in his name were typically close family, relatives, good friends, or lesser subjects who had impressed the king with their service. Land was given to these people, along with a title to designate their legitimacy to rule.
If nobles did a really good job at ruling their land and looking after the king or kingdom’s interests, then they could be promoted, even after achieving their peerage or title. William Canvendish, 5th Earl of Devonshire, was promoted to the position of First Duke of Devonshire in the 1690s for taking an active part in the plot to remove the exceedingly unpopular King James II from the throne of England – an event known to history as the “Glorious Revolution”, where the English Crown was basically given on a silver platter, to James’s much more popular daughter, Princess Mary, and her husband, William, Prince of Orange. They would reign, starting in 1688, as William III and Queen Mary. As they reigned as joint monarchs, the period covering their reign is known as the Reign of William AND Mary. The College of William and Mary in the Unitd States is named after them, and was founded by their permission in 1693. It is the second-oldest university in the United States (the oldest is, of course, Harvard!).
Anyway, I digress…
For helping to kick James out of England, and giving the throne to Queen Mary and King William, the new monarchs bestowed the new title of Duke of Devonshire upon the Cavendish family – a title they have held right up to the present day! The present Duke of Devonshire is the twelfth to hold the title since its creation in the 1690s!
How Do Aristocratic Titles Survive?
Aristocratic titles survive by being inherited, usually down the male line of descent. That is to say, first son to first son, first son to first son, through the ages. Should a first son not have a first son, then upon the first son’s death, the title reverts back up the line to the first son’s next male heir – usually a younger brother or cousin. Titles cannot be inherited by female members of a family, such as daughters, or wives. This complication is one of the main plot points of the period drama series ‘Downton Abbey‘, and it was even discussed in the British Parliament.
Despite attempts to pass what was called the “Lady Mary Bill” (which would allow females to inherit family title), no progress was made. So for now at least, aristocratic titles remain solely the preserve of men. If the holder of a hereditary title dies without heirs or descendants of any kind, the title becomes extinct, and dies out. To prevent this from happening, most aristocratic families always tried to have at least two sons (a practice that was colloquially known as having an ‘heir and spare’) to carry on the family title, name, and estate.
Courtesy Titles
A courtesy-title is a title given to a member of a nobleman’s family who has not earned a title of nobility or peerage in their own right. It is given, as the name suggests, out of courtesy, or politeness. In an aristocratic, noble or even royal family, the only true noble or aristocrat is the actual holder of the title. Everyone else, unless otherwise stipulated, holds what’s called a ‘courtesy title’. The wife of an earl is titled ‘Lady’ out of politeness. Their sons and daughters are titled ‘Lord’ or ‘Lady’, again out of politeness.
A good example of this is Lord Peter Wimsey, and his good man, Bunter! Strictly speaking, Lord Peter has no actual title of his own – the actual holder of the family title is his older brother Gerald, the Duke of Denver. Peter receives the courtesy title ‘Lord’, and the privilege of being addressed as ‘My Lord’, purely out of courtesy. Even Prince George, the firstborn son of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, has a courtesy-title, in essence, which he holds thanks to the permission of his great-grandmother, Elizabeth II.
The Perks of Aristocracy
Apart from a swanky title, being nobility used to come with all kinds of perks as well. Traditionally, this was in the form of land-grants. Exactly how much land you received depended on your ranking, and it was from this land that your wealth and status were expected to grow. Management of woodlands, farmlands, taxation and rent all went towards your lordly coffers. Apart from this, you were also expected to maintain law and order over your lands, as the king’s representative in the area. Collecting taxes, settling disputes, defending the king’s land from invaders or uprisings, and of course, maintaining the King’s Peace.
In times of war, nobility were expected to lead armies and command troops, but in times of peace, they would instead lavish the equivalent of millions of dollars on their private estates. This led to the creation of gigantic country houses and, just as it is now, and as it was then – the structure of the house itself, was yet another revenue stream. It was not uncommon for grand country houses to be besieged by curious commoners who were eager to look inside.
More open-minded nobility, who were held in good esteem by the public, turned this to their advantage – on days when the family was either away, or the house was not being used, the master of the house would permit upper servants such as butlers or housekeepers, to conduct tours of the house for the enjoyment of the paying public. For a small gratuity, anybody could enter the house and be shown around the rooms and chambers, where they could admire the furnishings and decorations.
At the end of the day, the takings were divided between the Master of the House, and the servant who had conducted the tour. In some houses, this practice was so common that some senior servants even wrote their own guidebooks, so that tourists could read them as they walked through the house!
Aristocracy without Royalty?
As you’ve seen, aristocratic titles and the landed estates that tend to go with them are intended to be passed down, father to son, father to son, through the generations, in some cases, for centuries! But what happens when the country that landed estate exists in suddenly ceases to be a monarchy? What happens to the aristocracy? Can they still keep the land? What happens to their titles?
It depends. In Austria, all aristocratic and royal titles have been abolished by the government. In France, you can hold onto your ancestral estate, if you can prove ownership, and can actually afford the upkeep, but you can only lay claim to an aristocratic title if you can prove that you are directly descendant from an original title-holder. Even if you can, this doesn’t confer any special privileges on you in French society, except the right to use your title if you so wish. German nobility hasn’t officially existed since the end of the First World War, although current laws do still allow former noble families to retain aristocratic honorifics, such as ‘Von’ in their surnames (the musical ‘Von Trapp’ family continues to uphold this tradition).
The Aristocracy Today
Apart from social prestige, what exactly does being aristocracy mean in the modern world?
Honestly? Not much more than that. Sadly, retaining a title of nobility is mostly done for ceremonial reasons these days. There are a few perks, like having it printed on your passport, or if you live in Britain, then being able to sit in the House of Lords, but beside that…not much. The days of grand estates are long gone. Skyrocketing maintenance costs and dwindling inheritances make them less and less appealing to own, and even if you do want to own one, and are able to get one in one manner or another, they’re so expensive that most of them are white elephants – too expensive to keep, too valuable to destroy.