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From: "Leon Stevens" <>
Subject: RE: Noble, Commoner. Misconception
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 10:55:47 -0400


> There might be a slight misconception <

It is better not to generalize about a "European nobility" as if there
is, or ever was such an entity with a single history and set of
conventions and characteristics. While the nobilitIES of Europe shared
many superficial characteristics, even these seemingly identical
manifestations are in fact perceived differently and defined differently
in each cultural sphere. This is why heraldic/chivalric encyclopedias
and treatises address the aristocracies and heraldic practice of each
country separately. In each country class and culture were in a state of
flux so that we may only describe them within the context of a given age
and geographical location. For example, in England up to the mid 14th
century, property and nobility were inherited through all male and
female lines (as in Poland throughout its history) until the early
disintegration of earldoms prompted the creation of the progenture
method of inheritance. In England, the peerage as a separate class was
created in 1215 by Article 14 of the Magna Carta, in which the king
reserved for himself the right to summon only the "principal...earls and
greater barons" to the Great Council (later Parliament) by individual
letters. In Poland-Lithuania, the high aristocracy, with few
exceptions, derived its preeminence from its vast property holdings and
only nominally attributed its senatorial appointments to the pleasure of
the king.


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