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
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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).
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Nobility offered protection in exchange for service
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French aristocrats, c. 1774
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A French political cartoon of the three orders of feudal society (1789). The rural third estate carries the clergy and the nobility.
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Hungarian hussar troops set up by the Hungarian nobility, during the Austro–Turkish War of 1787–1791.
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Polish magnates 1576-1586
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Polish magnates 1697-1795
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Hungarian count Nicholaus Eszterházy of Galántha (1583 – 1645)
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Italian Nobleman of the Fifteenth Century. Engraving from the so-called Mantegna Tarocchi, about 1465.
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Russian boyars
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The Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. Large numbers of English nobility perished in the Wars of the Roses
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Maratha Peshwa Madhavrao II, surrounded by nobles in his court in the 18th century India.
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In Korea, royalty and yangban aristocrats were carried in litters called gama. A Korean gama, circa 1890.
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An aristocratic family in Lhasa, Tibet in 1936.
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Emperor Farrukhsiyar Bestows a Jewel on a Nobleman
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Japanese samurai, 1798
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Portrait of Marquis of Paraná, Prime Minister of Brazil.
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Regent of Bandung, Java, Dutch East Indies, with his pajung bearer - 1863-1865
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Sons of Crown Prince Krom Loeang of Siam, Bangkok, 1862
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A Siamese noble in a hammock, 1900
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Equestrian portrait of Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn by David Morier around 1765
