Nobility facts for kids

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Burmese nobles
Burmese nobles and servants

Nobility was the highest social class in pre-modern societies. In the feudal system (in Europe and elsewhere), the nobility were mostly those who got land from the monarch and had to provide services to him, mainly military service. Men of this class were called noblemen. It soon became a hereditary class, sometimes with a right to bear a hereditary title and to have financial and other privileges.

Today, in most countries, "noble status" means no legal privileges; an important exception is the United Kingdom, where certain titles (titles of the peerage, until recently guaranteed a seat in the Upper House of Westminster Parliament, that is why it is called House of Lords), and still means some less important privileges.

Images for kids

  • House of Lords Microcosm edited

    The House of Lords of England (old chamber, burned down in 1834) as drawn by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson for Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808-11).

  • Crusader cavalry

    Nobility offered protection in exchange for service

  • Le bal paré

    French aristocrats, c. 1774

  • Troisordres

    A French political cartoon of the three orders of feudal society (1789). The rural third estate carries the clergy and the nobility.

  • Hungarian troops in 18th century

    Hungarian hussar troops set up by the Hungarian nobility, during the Austro–Turkish War of 1787–1791.

  • Polish magnates 1576-1586

    Polish magnates 1576-1586

  • Polish magnates 1697-1795

    Polish magnates 1697-1795

  • Esterházy M

    Hungarian count Nicholaus Eszterházy of Galántha (1583 – 1645)

  • Italian Nobleman of the Fifteenth Century From a Playing card engraved on Copper about 1460 Cabinet des Estampes National Library of Paris edit2

    Italian Nobleman of the Fifteenth Century. Engraving from the so-called Mantegna Tarocchi, about 1465.

  • Bojaren

    Russian boyars

  • MS Ghent - Battle of Tewkesbury

    The Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. Large numbers of English nobility perished in the Wars of the Roses

  • Thomas Daniell, Sir Charles Warre Malet, Concluding a Treaty in 1790 in Durbar with the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire

    Maratha Peshwa Madhavrao II, surrounded by nobles in his court in the 18th century India.

  • Gama2 crop

    In Korea, royalty and yangban aristocrats were carried in litters called gama. A Korean gama, circa 1890.

  • The Tsarong family

    An aristocratic family in Lhasa, Tibet in 1936.

  • Emperor Farrukhsiyar Bestows a Jewel on a Nobleman

    Emperor Farrukhsiyar Bestows a Jewel on a Nobleman

  • Ｓａｍｕｒａｉ

    Japanese samurai, 1798

  • Marquis of Parana by Emilio Bauch

    Portrait of Marquis of Paraná, Prime Minister of Brazil.

  • KITLV 408096 - Isidore van Kinsbergen - Regent of Bandung with his pajoeng bearer - 1863-1865

    Regent of Bandung, Java, Dutch East Indies, with his pajung bearer - 1863-1865

  • KITLV 6553 - Isidore van Kinsbergen - Sons of Crown Prince Krom Loeang of Siam, Bangkok - 1862

    Sons of Crown Prince Krom Loeang of Siam, Bangkok, 1862

  • A Siamese noble on hammock

    A Siamese noble in a hammock, 1900

  • Henry Duke of Cumberland by David Morier 1765

    Equestrian portrait of Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn by David Morier around 1765


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