1. Introduction.
2. Sovereigns
and Sovereignty.
3. Nobles and
Nobility.
4. Imperial
Titles.
5. Ruling Titles.
5.1 Kings and
Queens.
5.2 Other
Ruling Titles.
5.3 The Pope.
6. The Holy
Roman Empire and the German System.
7. Imperial,
Royal, and Noble Offspring.
8. Prince and
Fürst, Grand Duke, Margrave,
Count-Palatine, and Landgrave.
8.1. Prince
and Fürst.
8.2. Grand
Duke.
8.3. Margrave.
8.4.
Count-Palatine.
8.5. Landgrave.
9. Noble Titles.
9.1. Duke.
9.2. Marquess.
9.3. Earl,
Count, and Graf.
9.4. Viscount.
9.5. Baron.
9.6. Baronet.
1. Introduction.
1.1.
Description. This is a web version of
a FAQ originally developed for <alt.talk.royalty>.
1.2. Scope.
This document limits itself to
collecting, organizing and defining the various imperial, royal,
princely,
and noble titles encountered in Europe and may be considered a work of
lexicography. A good dictionary knows when to provide additional
information,
especially when the cultural or historical background of the terms
discussed
are part of something the expected readership cannot be presumed to
know
as a matter of general knowledge. On the other hand, it should be noted
that this is not a formal work; rather it is an ongoing thing developed
for my own education and entertainment as much as for that of anyone
else
who may read it.
1.3.
Limitations. As stated, this attempts
to limit itself to titles, and these titles are exclusively European;
in
the future, I would like see sections on non-European titles, i.e.,
Islamic
and Asian, but this falls outside my present competence. Other
questions,
such as specific national usages are not as yet addressed in adequate
detail.
The question of styles, i.e., the way a sovereign or noble is addressed
("Her Royal Highness", "Your Grace"), is mentioned only in passing.
There
are times, however, when the distinction between "style" and "title" is
unclear, and I make no claim to consistency or precision when calling
something
a title. François Velde has the most serene highness of a site
that
discusses styles:
http://128.220.1.164/heraldry/topics/highness.htm
1.4.
Organization. I have used the British
system as the departure point for my discussions, as this is the one
most
familiar to the expected readership. However, a major caution is
necessary:
the British system is narrower, somewhat more exclusive and altogether,
much tidier than those found on the continent, where one encounters a
larger
number of titles and what seems to be finer gradations between them.
For
example, "prince" is often a grade above the merely noble but is not
quite
royal, while the distinctions between the different species of "Graf"
in
the German system makes a full correlation with the British system
impossible.
1.5 Version
History. Preliminary versions
of this were posted on <alt.talk.royalty> as well as circulated
privately.
A version has been posted to news.answers and alt.answers. This web
version
is a revision of that and by the next official posting of the
ascii-version
of the FAQ, the two will hopefully be in complete accord.
1.6.
Invitation. As always, comments, corrections
and kvetches are welcomed. You may respond on the newsgroup alt.talk.royalty
and/or to me via e-mail. I do not claim to be infallible -- nor even
completely
accurate, though I make every effort to be so. Much of this work
represents
the contributions culled from others more knowledgeable than I, and if
this is to develop further, additional such contributions are actively
solicited. In particular, I would like fuller information on the actual
words used in the various European languages for titles such as
"count",
"duke", etc, as well as information on the patterns of noble titles
found
in each European nation-state.
1.7. Credits.
First, I need to thank the regular
posters on a.t.r., but especially, Louis Epstein, Shinjinee Sen,
Jacqueline
Ximenes, D.A. Willis, Patrick O'Shea, Guy Stair Sainty, Stan Brown,
Deven
Mercer, Jeff Leader, William Addams Reitweisner, Mark Anthony Rodriguez
and Marlene Eilers Koenig. A very special thanks needs to be given to
François
Velde, both for his contributions as well as his hosting of this web
page
at his site.
1.8. Future
Growth. There is much that could
and should be added, just in terms of titles, especially German ones. I
would like to see individual sections dedicated to individual national
usages. François Velde's web site has good material on the
French
practices; nothing comparable, however, exists for Iberian or Italian
usages
(the latter of which is quite complex), and I really only touch the
surface
when it comes to the multilayered and at times seemingly paradoxical
system
found in German lands.
1.9. Copyright
Notice. For non-commercial
purposes only, this FAQ may be freely copied, distributed or quoted in
any medium with the understanding that full credit shall be given. All
other rights are reserved by myself.
2. Sovereigns and Sovereignty.
"Sovereign" (in
the European sense) is a technical
term, both noun and adjective. In times past, a sovereign was
sovereign,
i.e., answerable only to God for his actions. Only the Pope is
sovereign
in this sense today (as head of the Vatican City State), with Princes
Rainier
of Monaco and Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein coming a relatively close
second.
More generally, a sovereign is any hereditary head-of-state, whatever
the
title, and whatever constitutional powers the sovereign may have. For
the
purposes of this document, "sovereign" refers to a ruling head of state
and need not be royal or imperial.
Luxembourg is
headed by a grand duke; Liechtenstein
and Monaco are headed by princes. Liechtenstein and Luxembourg are both
sovereign states and their heads of state are sovereigns. While Prince
Rainier of Monaco is a sovereign, in strict terms Monaco is not a
sovereign
state, its semi-dependent relationship to France governed by treaty.
Andorra
is similarly not strictly a sovereign state. The Channel Islands and
the
Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom but feudal dependencies
of the British Crown and also lack sovereignty, as do Britain's various
colonial leftovers.
Before the
unifications of Germany and Italy,
there were a welter of sovereign or essentially sovereign states ruled
by variously-titled sovereigns -- electors (in German,
"Kurfürst"),
margraves, etc. The families ruling these formerly independent states
are
for the most part still dynastically significant today.
3. Nobles and Nobility.
Romans
recognized three orders: patricians,
equestrians and plebeians, and earlier, before the foundation of the
republic,
a fourth: royalty. Added to this, there was the concept of nobilis; to
be noble meant you were descended from someone who had been Consul;
being
a patrician was necessary to become Consul (though you could buy your
way
in), but to be noble was ineffably grander, at least to the Roman way
of
thinking. This has been turned around a bit in Italy; in Italian cities
today, a "patriciate" exists which is considered to be above "mere"
nobility.
These notions
of the Romans apply to present-day
parlance. In the British system, one can discriminate between royalty,
nobility, knights, gentry and commons: five grades. The Germans tend to
regard certain of what the British regard as gentry as noble, and at
the
highest levels, what the British define as noble resembles what the
Germans
regard as "princely" and in general, continental systems as a whole
tend
to have a broader definition of "noble".
In essence, the
nobility were the landowners.
To be a landowner you had to be prepared to defend your right to own
that
land, and with the progressive disorders that lead to the fall of the
Western
Roman Empire and the development of the feudal system in Europe,
nobility
became synonymous with the military caste -- an essentially
self-appointed
caste.
In the West, it
is nearly impossible to trace
any noble lineage back much before AD 800 (though the old Gaelic
nobility
of Ireland has a special claim to antiquity here); anything before 1100
is remarkable. The organized system of titles we have today is a rather
late development, but "count", and "prince" go back to the Roman
Empire.
Only when it was recognized that one might have "betters" (i.e., with
the
organization of nation-states) did the nobles start paying attention to
titles, styles, and pedigrees.
A distinction
needs to be made between "nobility"
and "peerage". In the British system, a peer is the holder of the
title,
while a noble is a member of a family headed by a peer. In the UK, such
family members, while "noble", are still technically common, which is
not
necessarily the case elsewhere. More narrowly, a peer also sits in
parliament,
as with the British House of Lords or the former French House of Peers.
There are some titles in the United Kingdom (e.g., the Irish peerage,
when
the peer lacks another English, Scots or UK title) which do not permit
one to sit in the House of Lords; thus, in Scotland, the distinction of
a "Lord of Parliament". See:
http://www.kwtelecom.com/heraldry/manor.html#T4
(follow link to
"Scottish Feudal Baronies")
Something also
needs to be said about "title
inflation". While the British system is tidily exclusive, this is not
the
case in other systems. As explained below, some systems (as with
France)
have long tolerated "courtesy titles", a putative title of nobility
that
has no basis in fact. In other cases, all the descendants of a noble
have
a title, the title holder, as in Italy, being styled "Duke of
Suchandsuch",
with everyone else being titled "Firstname of the Dukes (or Marquesses,
etc) of Suchandsuch".
François
Velde writes about the French
situation:
Nowadays,
anyone descended from a count
uses the style of count (although "le comte Pierre de X" is
distinguished
from "Pierre, comte de X" who is the real title-holder). That makes it
seem like many counts. Since there are only about 1000 authentic
titles,
the share of titles/peerages to population is similar to England.
In Germany,
since the Weimar Republic, all
titles are considered part of one's last name. Thus, a real title
holder
can "adopt" an adult, and the otherwise unrelated person then can
become
"Joe Schmuck Duke of Saxony" (this is the case of ZsaZsa's hubby); the
practice is alluded to in Billy Wilder's film, One Two Three (Cagney's
last film before Ragtime).
Then there is
the matter of how the nobility
of a previous state was incorporated into that of a successor state or
regime. This particularly applies to Germany as well as Italy, but also
applies to the case of the United Kingdom (with the Scots and Irish
peerages)
and in France, how titles granted after the ancien regime are handled.
The term "mediatization" is often applied here.
On occasion,
all of this becomes very involved,
a topic hotly (and voluminously) debated. Outside the British system,
the
reader is cautioned about taking any title at immediate face value, as
a thousand years of history, succeeding states, differing usages, vast
quantities of personal vanity, as well as not a little fraud may be
involved;
it is not without good reason that Dumas, Trollope, et al. had fun
casting
faux Italian nobles as charming (or not-so-charming) villains. Even in
Britain, the recent practice of peddling lordships of the manor (feudal
leftovers so devoid of meaning that Parliament has never seen fit to
abolish
them) testifies to the problems; see
http://www.kwtelecom.com/heraldry/manor.html#T4
for a
discussion of "English Lordships of
the Manor" (follow link); especially see "Caveat Emptor".
4. Imperial Titles.
Latin
Imperator, Imperatrix
Greek
Autokrator
English
Emperor, Empress
German
Kaiser, Kaiserin
French
Empereur, Imperatrice
Spanish
Emperador, Emperatriz
Russian
Tsar, Tsaritsa
"Emperor" comes
from the Latin imperator,
roughly "commander", a title which ancient Roman armies "spontaneously"
hailed a victorious general by; this entitled the general to a triumph
(a sort of ancient Tournament of Roses Parade and Bowl Game). It was
one
of the titles of the Roman Emperor.
Diocletian
divided the Roman Empire into East
and West, with two emperors, each emperor being "Imperator" and
"Augustus".
Each co-emperor had associates, termed "caesars". This system proved
unworkable,
but the division of the Empire was permanent by about AD 395.
The fall of the
Western Empire is traditionally
dated to August 23, 476 when Odoacer was crowned King of Italy. Romulus
II, or alternately, Julius II Nepos, is considered the last Western
Emperor.
"Caesar", as a
title of the Roman Emperor,
or an associate of an emperor, entered both German and Russian as the
word
for "emperor" (respectively, "kaiser" and "tsar"); the Bulgarian word
"tsar"
is usually translated to "king". In English and the western Romance
languages,
"imperator" was the word that won out.
The
Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire continued
up to 1453, when Constantinople fell to the forces of the Ottoman Turks
under Mehmet II. The last Byzantine Emperor was Constantine XI. It has
been said that as Rome began and ended with a Romulus, so
Constantinople
began and ended with a Constantine.
A list of
Eastern and Western Roman Emperors
is available at Imperium Romanorum:
http://wwwtc.nhmccd.cc.tx.us:443/people/crf01/rome/
Professor Fox's
main page is here:
http://wwwtc.nhmccd.cc.tx.us:443/people/crf01/history/
On Christmas
Day, AD 800, Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne Roman Emperor, i.e., Western Emperor. The Eastern Emperor
(by
now, the Byzantine Emperor) acceded to this. This is the start of the
Holy
Roman Empire, which would continue for a thousand years, until 1806.
This
was the first "thousand-year reich".
"Charlemagne"
is Old French for "Charles-le-magne"
or "Charles the Great". In German, he referred to as "Karl der
Große".
In Latin, this is Carolus Magnus. He is counted as King Charles I of
France
and as Holy Roman Emperor Charles (or Karl) I.
Napoleon I was
vested with "the imperial dignity"
by a law of the French Senate in May 1804. A referendum approved the
hereditary
character of that dignity in his family. He abdicated in April 1814,
returned
for a brief interlude (the 100 Days) in March-June 1815 and abdicated
again.
(--François Velde)
The son of
Napoleon I by Marie-Louise of Austria
is counted as Napoleon II. He is usually treated in historic and
encyclopedic
works under his Austrian title, Duke of Reichstadt.
Emperor
Napoleon III was the first Napoleon's
nephew. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, president of the French Republic,
instigated
a coup on Dec. 2, 1851 and had himself proclaimed Emperor in 1852; he
abdicated
in 1870 consequent to France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The
1852-70
period is called the Second Empire. (--(mostly) François
Velde)
In 1804, Holy
Roman Emperor Francis II assumed
the title of Austrian Emperor as Francis I (in German, Franz). On
August
6, 1806, he disclaimed the title of Holy Roman Emperor, which is as
good
a date as any to mark the decease of Holy Roman Empire. The use of the
numeral was a decision on the part of Franz himself.
Emperors of
Austria
Franz I (
Francis
I)
1806-1835
Ferdinand
1835-1848
Franz
Josef (Francis
Joseph)
1848-1916
Karl
(Charles)
1916-1918
Dr. Otto von
Habsburg is the present head
of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine; he is the son of Emperor Karl and
Empress-Consort
Zita. The headship of Habsburg-Lorraine may pass to the Archduke Lorenz
of Austria-Este, the husband of Princess Astrid of Belgium (who is
anticipated
to eventually become queen-regnant, as her brother, Crown Prince
Phillippe,
seems disinclined to marry); if this happens, the head of the House of
Habsburg-Lorraine may again wear a crown, in the person of (the
probable)
future King Amedeo of Belgium.
In 1871, at the
end of the Franco-Prussian
War, the King of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor (Deutscher
Kaiser)
at Versailles. Considering the number of ruling or reigning kings,
grand
dukes, margraves, etc, to be found in the now-unified Germany, the
assumption
of the imperial title was not unreasonable. It also symbolized the
emergence
of Germany as a world power. This was "the second reich".
German
Emperors
Wilhelm
I
1871-1888
Friedrich
1888
Wilhelm
II
1888-1918
Kaiser
Friedrich was also King Friedrich III
of Prussia; Prussia is wholly defunct as a state since the Potsdam
Conference
following World War II. The present head of the (imperial) House of
Hohenzollern
is Prince Georg Friedrich (born 1976); he is the great-great-grandson
of
Wilhelm II through his father and grandfather, both of whom were named
Louis Ferdinand, and his great-grandfather, Crown Prince Wilhelm. There
are Hohenzollerns in the legitimate male line senior in descent to
Georg
Friedrich, but they have been denied succession rights due to unequal
marriages.
This
German-language web site contains a very
complete list of the margraves, electors and kings of
Brandenburg-Prussia:
http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/diverse/bib/preussen-k.html
The following
web site contains a complete
list of Holy Roman Emperors, Austrian Emperors, Kings of Prussia and
German
Emperors:
http://wwwtc.nhmccd.cc.tx.us:443/people/crf01/history/hre.html
The Russian
monarchy was different from those
in the West. The Russians considered themselves a kind of "New Rome"
after
the fall of Byzantium to the Turks. Until the reforms of Tsar
Peter I ("the Great"), the word "tsar" was used exclusively;
thereafter,
he decreed "emperor" was to be the term used when translating "tsar"
into
other European languages. For the francophile, often francophone
Russian
aristocracy, the equivalence of "tsar" and "emperor" became complete.
Notwithstanding
this, the Russian monarchy, the Russian Church and much of Russian
society
was originally based on the Byzantine model, something evident even
today.
Note that the Russian tsars called themselves "autocrats", after the
Byzantine
term for emperor, "autokrator".
There is some
controversy about who represents
the authentic Romanov heir, but Maria Vladimirovna, the daughter of
Grand
Duke Vladimir Kyrillovich (first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II), and her
son,
George Romanov, seem to have the strongest claim. A tsarist restoration
in Russia seems unlikely, but some sort of "official" status may
develop,
analogous to the status held in France by the Count of Paris as the
most
broadly recognized claimant to the French throne.
A list of all
the Romanov tsars may be found
here:
http://www.palaces.org/roman.html
The Brazilian
emperors were offshoots of the
Portuguese royal family. Emperor Pedro I is also counted as King Pedro
IV of Portugal. Brazil became independent in 1822 with Pedro as
Emperor.
He abdicated in 1831. Pedro II was deposed in 1889 by a military coup.
There are two pretenders to this throne, descended from
Princess-Imperial
Isabel, heiress of Dom
Pedro
II. Relatively recently, the Brazilian people were asked if they
wanted
a restoration as a "crowned presidency". This may yet happen; in
Brazil,
anything
is
possible.
Mexico has had
two emperors. The first was
Augustin Iturbide; he crowned himself a la Napoleon in 1822, abdicated
in 1823, and was executed in 1824. Mexico's more famous emperor was the
ill-fated Maximilian, younger brother of Franz Josef of Austria. He and
his consort, Carlota (the daughter of King Leopold I of Belgium and a
first
cousin of Queen Victoria), were crowned in 1864. In 1867, Maximilian's
position became untenable when French troops provided by Napoleon III
were
withdrawn. Instead of fleeing, he held out to the last and was captured
by the forces of Benito Juarez. Despite international pleas, Juarez had
him executed by firing squad June, 9, 1867 (Maximilian is the one
wearing
a sombrero in Manet's famous painting of this event).
In the United
Kingdom, the Assumption of Titles
Act (1877) granted to Queen Victoria the title Empress of India. This
was
mostly a reaction to the "inflation" of imperial titles (Germany,
Brazil,
Austria, Russia), but was also a recognition that the British Raj had
supplanted
the old Mogul dynasty. King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth the
Queen Mother (mother of the present British sovereign) were the last
Emperor
and Empress-Consort of India.
It is said that
Mussolini proclaimed King
Victor Emmanuel of Italy "Emperor of Ethiopia".
5. Ruling Titles.
5.1 Kings and
Queens.
Latin
Rex, Regina
Greek
Basileus
English
King, Queen
German
König, Königin
French
Roi, Reine
Spanish
Rey, Reina
Portuguese
Rei, Reiha
Romanian
Regele, Raina
Bulgarian
Tsar
Norwegian
Konge, Dronning
Danish
Konge, Dronning
Swedish
Konung, Drotning
Dutch
Koning, Koningin
Irish
Ri, Rigan (High-King = Ard Ri)
In modern
terms, a king or queen-regnant is
the hereditary head of a nation-state. In Europe today, there are only
seven such monarchies. These are:
Nation
Sovereign, Consort; Heir-Apparent
Belgium
King
Albert
II, Queen Paola; Crown Prince Philippe
Denmark
Queen Margrethe II,
Prince Henrik;
Crown Prince Frederik
Netherlands
Queen Beatrix, Prince Claus; Crown Prince Willem-Alexander
Norway
King Harald V, Queen Sonja; Crown Prince Haakon Magnus
Spain
King Juan Carlos, Queen Sophia; Felipe, Prince of Asturias
Sweden
King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia; Crown Princess Victoria
United
Kingdom
Queen Elizabeth II, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Charles, Prince of
Wales
A curious
factoid is that, with the finalization
of Prince Charles' divorce, all of the heirs to kingdoms in Europe are
unmarried. Over the next few years, we will be treated to a round of
very
royal marriages on the continent.
There are other
nations formerly so-headed
during the 20th Century:
Albania
Bulgaria
Greece
Hungary (dual
monarchy of Austria-Hungary)
Italy
Portugal
Romania
Yugoslavia
There are other
kingdoms which became defunct
early in the 20th century or in previous centuries, the dynasties of
which
are still regarded as significant, firstly France, but particularly in
Germany (e.g, Bavaria, Württemberg). The former Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies is also significant in this regard.
Of these former
monarchies, at present only
Romania seems to have a reasonable chance at seeing a restoration,
though
Greece and Bulgaria are other possibilities. The former kings of
Bulgaria,
Greece and Romania (respectively,
Simeon,
Constantine II and Michael) are all still alive and are still very much
interested in their homelands and the dynastic prospects of their
families.
More distantly
in time, there were other kingdoms
and dynasties. Bohemia was once a kingdom. There was an elective
monarchy
in Poland, but this became extinct when Poland was partitioned between
Prussia, Russia and Austria. Burgundy was absorbed into France, but had
an illustrious history. In Spain, Navarre and Castille were just two of
the kingdoms that united to form the state we know today. The
"kingdoms"
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are two
formerly
separate kingdoms, England (joined with the Principality of Wales) and
Scotland, plus a rump of a third former kingdom, Ireland. What is now
Italy
has a very jumbled history, but there were kingdoms to be found there
too,
among them, the old Norman Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Sardinia
(which
lead to the modern Italian state), and the curiously-named Kingdom of
the
Two Sicilies. We might also mention the old Crusader-founded Kingdom of
Jerusalem.
5.2. Other
Ruling Monarchies.
Three current
European monarchies are headed
by persons lacking the title of "king" or "queen". These are:
Nation
Sovereign, Consort, Heir-Apparent
Liechtenstein
(principality)
Prince Hans-Adam
II, Princess
Marie; Hereditary Prince Alois
Luxembourg
(grand duchy) Grand
Duke Jean, Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte; Hereditary Grand Duke
Henri
Monaco
(principality)
Prince Rainier III, [none]; Hereditary Prince Albert
The use of
"Hereditary Prince" or "Hereditary
Grand Duke" is discussed under under "Imperial, Royal, and Noble
Offspring".
In earlier
times, there were many more monarchies
of this kind, variously titled as grand duchies, duchies,
principalities,
etc. Most of these occurred within the bounds of the former Holy Roman
Empire, or in regions adjacent to it, though in Italy, the Grand Duchy
of Tuscany (Florence) of the Medicis (and later, as a branch of the
Habsburgs)
needs mentioning. Finland was a grand duchy held by the Romanovs. The
brief-lived
Grand Duchy of Warsaw was created by Napoleon I. Some discussion of the
history of the Holy Roman Empire is necessary before many of these
titles
originating from it can be adequately understood. We might mention here
that Luxembourg was created as a grand duchy for the House of
Orange-Nassau
within the German Confederation (successor of the Holy Roman Empire),
while
the Netherlands (including present Belgium) remained outside of the
Confederation
(and previously, the Empire).
5.3. The
Pope.
Since the
signing of the Lateran treaty, the
Pope has been Sovereign of the Vatican City State. Before the States of
the Church were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy, the Pope was
similarly
a territorial sovereign (this was the central part of Italy from Rome
north).
Almost all nations of the world recognize the Vatican as a sovereign
nation-state,
albeit a peculiar one, and maintain diplomatic relations with it --
including
the United States.
A complete
listing and brief biographies of
all the popes may be found here:
http://www.knight.org/advent/Popes/ppindx.htm
6. The Holy Roman Empire
and the German System.
Holy Roman
Emperor was an elective office.
However, dynastic politics made it effectively hereditary, first with
the
Hohenstaufen, then, except for a brief period, the Habsburgs. For the
Habsburgs,
an imperial election was still necessary for an emperor to enter into
his
reign, and this was done by the Electors (in German, Kurfürst,
Kurfürstin).
The number of electors grew over time; at the dissolution of the empire
these were:
Temporal
Spiritual
Brandenburg
Cologne
Bavaria
Mainz
Bohemia
Trier
Hanover
Hesse
Palatinate
Saxony
The power of
the Holy Roman Emperor was limited
and the nobles who putatively owed him allegiance were oftentimes
sovereign
in all but name, particularly in the latter stages of the Empire.
Some of these
magnates held lands outside
the Empire as kings; the Elector of Brandenburg (as King in
Prussia,
then with Frederick the Great and his successors as King of
Prussia)
and the Elector of Hanover (Kings George I through George III of the
United
Kingdom) are two such cases.
Within the
Empire, these powerful families
ruled as electors, grand dukes, dukes, margraves, landgraves, and
princes.
With the extinction of the Holy Roman Empire, kingdoms emerged out of
the
former Imperial domains, each headed by its own royal house:
Bavaria
Hanover
Saxony
Prussia
(additional lands within the old
Empire)
Württemberg
The Austrian
Habsburgs, accustomed to being imperial,
assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in 1804. Later, the
"dual-monarchy"
was established, with the Habsburgs as Emperors of Austria and Kings of
Hungary, the combined realm being known as "Austria-Hungary".
The other
magnates often became entirely independent
grand dukes, etc., usually retaining their old titles, but sometimes
assuming
(on occasion, unilaterally) a grander one. Some of these titles and
styles
are only approximately equivalent to those encountered in European
nations
outside the borders of the former Empire. All of this was settled at
the
Congress of Vienna, and the British equivalencies are determined by
starting
(but not ending) with the protocols hammered out there; part of this
was
a process referred to as "mediatizing".
Mediatization
is very important in the German
system. It refers to formerly ruling houses who maintained their
dynastic
rights even when they lost sovereignty over territory. It meant that
even
if they no longer ruled, they were still "equal" in dynastic dignity to
the luckier families that did retain sovereignty over lands and would
remain
equal provided their members married equally.
The word
"ebenbürtigkeit", "equal-birth-ness"
is often found in this context, and seems to be naturalizing itself
into
English with the sense of "equal marriage", as an antonym for
"morganatic"
(unequal marriage). An unequal, or morganatic marriage meant (and still
often does mean) that any child of such a marriage will be denied
succession
rights and will have a lesser status than that of an
ebenbürtigkeit
cousin.
The word
"mediatize" refers to the "immediate"
person the magnate owed allegiance to; originally this was the Emperor,
but after 1815, many of the smaller magnates were placed under the
authority
of one of the new entirely sovereign states in what is now
Germany.
Incorrectly or
not, this term, (mediatization)
has also been applied to other no-longer reigning or ruling houses
which
were never part of the Holy Roman Empire, e.g., the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies which was consolidated with the Kingdom of Italy or to the
ancient
royal and noble houses of Armenia and Georgia in their relationship to
the Russian throne.
What should be
kept in mind here is that formerly
ruling or reigning houses (royal or not) are carefully distinguished
from (formerly) non-ruling or non-reigning houses in the German system,
with the former taking precedence before the latter -- whatever the
actual
title may be. Of similar but lesser importance is the distinction
between
"old" and "new" (post-1800 creation) nobility. If all of this makes the
Germans seem insufferable snobs, you're not far off track.
Outside of the
Empire, each nation-state evolved
its own system and nomenclature. For the most part, the different
systems
are parallel, but there are important distinctions and exceptions that
one should be aware of, particularly when distinguishing non-royal but
otherwise formerly sovereign houses from those which are merely
noble.
7. Imperial, Royal, and
Noble Offspring.
Some titles
were reserved exclusively for
an imperial or royal child. Othertimes, the child was given an
otherwise
noble title. The heir of a noble often bears a distinctive style as
well.
In English, a
prince is the child (and in
the male line, a grandchild) of the king or queen-regnant (and in the
direct
line of succession, the great-grandchildren of the sovereign), and are
styled a "royal highness". This nomenclature applies to the children of
continental kings and queens-regnant, at least when speaking
English.
What
distinguishes a style from a title here
is unclear. "Dauphin" for the French heir or "Prince of Wales" for the
British, while a title, is really more of a style. The same can be said
for "Prince [or Princess] of Asturias" for the Spanish heir, but
"infante"
for a Spanish prince of the blood seems closer to a title as we have
been
using the term; one may say the same thing about the Habsburg use of
"Erzherzog".
Title and style for imperial and royal offspring varies from
dynasty-to-dynasty.
What might be thought of in English as being a non-royal title may in
fact
be a very royal title in another place.
Most people are
aware of the distinction between
a royal prince, as with the United Kingdom, and a ruling prince, as
with
Monaco or Liechtenstein, but are probably confused about who takes
precedence
over who (a ruling prince usually takes precedence; this is all
governed
by international protocol). The potential for confusion is also present
with grand dukes, as a ruling grand duke would normally outrank the
child
of a Russian tsar.
The child of a
Habsburg emperor was referred
to as an archduke or archduchess (Erzherzog or Erzherzogin), a style
used
by the Habsburgs as far back as the 14th century. It extended to his
grandchildren
in the direct line of succession.
Absent another
specific term, the English
term for the heir-apparent to an imperial throne was "Prince [or
Princess]
Imperial", as with Napoleon III's son, Prince-Imperial Eugene, or the
heiress
of Dom Pedro II of Brazil, Princess-Imperial Isabel, which in fact was
also the form in French and Portuguese.
The German
system often makes use of the prefix
"Erb" for the heir to a title as with "Erbgraf" whereas the British
system
prefers using a lesser "courtesy title". William Addams Reitwiesner
writes:
"Erb" in
German (in this sense) means "hereditary"[.
. . .] The oldest son and heir of a Mediatized Count would be an
"Erbgraf".
The oldest son and heir of a Grand Duke would be an
"Erbgroßherzog".
And so on. Another way of spelling the title would be "Erb-Prinz" or
"Erb-Graf",
etc. The wives of these men have equivalent feminine titles, such
as"Erbprinzessin",
"Erbgräfin", "Erbgroßherzogin", etc. The French form is
"prince
heredetaire", "comte heredetaire" "grand-duc heredetaire", etc. (toss
in
accents as appropriate).
In French
usage, Prince Albert of Monaco,
as heir to Prince Rainier, is a "prince-heredetaire", and Prince Alois,
the heir of Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein is, in German usage, an
"Erbprinz".
"Hereditary Prince" and "Hereditary Grand Duke" sound alien in English,
but this is how they must be translated.
This German
usage, however, does not extend
to royalty; for the Germans, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is a
"Kronprinzessin"
and Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands is a "Kronprinz".
The heir to a
French ducal title is sometimes
styled "Prince of Suchandsuch", but this is more a "courtesy title"
(see
François Velde's comments under "Prince"), and roughly
corresponds
to the British practice of the heir to a peerage using a lesser title
held
by the actual peer, as with the marquessate of Blandford for the Dukes
of Marlborough.
In the Russian
system, "grand duke" is the
English term for the son of a tsar, a translation for "velikiy knyaz"
(which
might be better translated as "great [or grand] prince"). For a grand
duchess,
the Russian term is "velikiy knyazhna" if unmarried, "velikiy knyagina"
if married. This is a title that was used by the Grand Dukes of
Muscovy.
In German, this is termed Großfürst or
Großfürstin
(vs. "Großherzog" = Grand Duke). This is considered equivalent to
archduke or archduchess, but needs to be distinguished from sovereign
grand
dukes (as with Luxembourg). Generically, the son of a Russian tsar was
termed a "tsarevich", a daughter "tsarovna". "Tsesarevich" or
"cesarevich"
has been stated to be a title reserved for the eldest son of the
tsar.
The son of a
Spanish king or queen-regnant
is termed an infante, a daughter an infanta, in distinction to
"principe"
or "princesa". The king or queen-regnant's heir, however, is always
styled
Prince or Princess of Asturias (Principe de Asturias). A Princess of
Asturias
can be "demoted" to mere infanta by the advent of a baby brother; the
wife
of the Prince of Asturias, however, is styled the Princess of
Asturias.
8. Prince and Fürst,
Grand Duke, Margrave, Count-Palatine, and Landgrave.
8.1. Prince and
Fürst.
Latin
Princeps
English
Prince, Princess
French
Prince, Princesse
German
Prinz, Prinzessin; Fürst, Fürstin
Italian
Principe, Principessa
Spanish
Principe, Princesa
Portuguese
Príncipe-Princesa
Russian
Knyaz, Knyazhna
"Prince" has a
long history. When the Emperor
Augustus accepted the title from the Roman Senate, it meant "first
among
equals", as in "primus inter pares". It remained one of the titles of
the
Roman Emperor. The English word "principal" retains some of this
meaning.
In German, the idea has been translated into the title
"Fürst".
In the most
general terms, when not referring
to the children of a king, "prince" refers to a sovereign or
semi-sovereign
individual who has direct personal rule over a relatively small
territory,
as with Monaco and Liechtenstein today.
Because the
Germans were much more used to
minor princes than were other European states outside the Empire, and
because
German has the additional title of "Fürst", "Prinz" in German does
not have the very royal cachet it does in English, and sometimes may be
classed as a lesser title than "Herzog", or "Großherzog"
depending
on a particular title's history.
"Fürst" is
a uniquely German title that
is best translated to "prince" and should be regarded as superior to
"prince".
It designates the head (the "first") of a princely house, or the head
of
a branch (or "cadet") of such a house. An example of the usage is the
German
style of "Fürst von Wales" for the Prince of Wales; this signifies
that Prince Charles is the principal of the title, while his wife
(ex-wife,
actually) and children take their styles from his title. Similarly, the
German form of Prince Rainier's title is "Fürst von Monaco"
(Princess
Grace was "Fürstin").
Electors of the
Holy Roman Empire were termed
"Kurfürst, Kurfürstin". "Großfürst" is the word
used
in German for a Russian grand duke (son of a tsar).
From these
examples, we can see that in the
German system (and elsewhere in continental systems), a prince is
sometimes
something more than a mere noble, but not necessarily royal and it is
this
distinction that makes comparing it with the British system
difficult.
In the Russian
system, "knyaz" (translated
as "prince", e.g., Prince Potemkin) is the highest degree of nobility,
and sometimes, represents a mediatization of an older native dynasty
(e.g.,
the Bagratians) which became subject to the Russian imperial dynasty;
it
was "also used by Rurikid branches, and before the Romanovs they WERE
the
Russian imperial dynasty." (--Louis Epstein)
"Prince" is
also the term used to translate
the highest level of the old Gaelic nobility (see under "count").
Napoleon
created princes during the First
Empire, and I am told, at least one survives to the present day.
François
Velde comments on the usage of "prince" during the ancien regime:
France, in
theory, had no sovereign princes
within its boundaries like Germany had, so the rank of prince was
reserved
for the royal family (as in England) and there was no title of prince.
However, when one looks at 10th or 11th c. charters, one sees the word
princeps used synonymously with baronis, optimus, etc to designate
nobles
and lords. The usage disappeared in most places, with a few exceptions,
where the lord of some little village was, by custom, called "prince
of".
In the 16th c. and 17th c. some of these lordships passed into ducal
families,
who then took the habit of bestowing that "princely" title on the
eldest
son of the current duke.
8.2. Grand Duke.
English
Grand Duke, Grand Duchess
German
Großherzog, Großherzogin
French
Grand Duc, Grande Duchesse
Italian
Gran-duca, Gran-duchesa
As has been
explained in earlier sections, this
is a ruling (or formerly ruling) title unless it refers to the children
of a Russian tsar. A sovereign grand duke or grand duchess was often a
royal highness (as with Luxembourg). In German usage, you will also
encounter
the style of "Grand-Ducal Highness".
It is difficult
to decide if a Grand Duke
outranks a Prince or Fürst. One has to know the history of the
title.
For a
discussion of the distinction between
a dukedom and a duchy, see under "duke" below.
8.3.
Margrave.
"Margrave" and
"margravine" are the English
words for "Markgraf" and "Markgräfin". As a title, it is
etymologically
equivalent to a Marquess (see below), but as there were ruling
margraves
in what is now Germany, such a Markgraf was superior.
8.4.
Count-Palatine.
"Palatine"
refers to extraordinary powers
granted to a noble. The English word "palatine" means a region under
the
authority of a noble where the king's writ was suspended. While the
noble
owed allegience to the king (or Holy Roman Emperor), the holder of a
palatine
had absolute authority, including the right to grant titles of
nobility,
create knights, raise armies, coin money -- i.e., powers normally
reserved
to a sovereign. There were palatinates in British history, in both
England
and in Ireland, and could be given to either lords temporal or
spiritual.
There was a case of a "bishop-palatine"; Louis Epstein reports "the
English
Lords Bishop of Durham used to rule a 'county palatine'".
"The
Palatinate", however, refers to the Rhineland
Palatinate in Germany, or in German, "Rheinland-Pfalz" (as with the
state
in the modern Federal Republic of Germany). There was also the "Upper
Palatinate",
or "Oberpfalz".
The
Counts-Palatine of the Rhineland Palatinate
(in German, "Pfalzgraf, Pfalzgräfin"), were one of the premier
noble
houses of the Holy Roman Empire, and were electors, i.e., the
Elector-Palatine.
8.5.
Landgrave.
As with
"margravine", "landgrave" and "landgravine"
are another pair of German titles that have achieved their own regular
word in English. It corresponds roughly to a count or earl, but in the
case of Hesse-Homburg, it was a ruling title. The German words are
Landgraf
and Landgräfin. See "Earl, Count, and Graf", below.
9. Nobility.
9.1. Dukes.
Latin
Dux
English
Duke, Duchess
German
Herzog, Herzogin
French
Duc, Duchesse
Italian
Duca, Duchesa
Spanish
Duque, Duquesa
Portuguese
Duque-Duquesa
Related Terms:
duchy, dukedom, ducal.
The Latin dux
was a military title that might
roughly translate to "field marshal". The historical kernel of in the
stories
of King Arthur probably refers to a dux bellorum in charge of the
forces
holding off the barbarian onslaught in early post-Roman Britain.
The English
kings introduced the French ducal
structure into the British system, and it was initially a mostly royal
title (as all new creations during this century have been). In France
especially
after 1600, however, as well as in Britain, it has evolved into a
mostly
non-royal title.
The idea that a
duke is a royal title, however,
is strong in Germany, perhaps stronger than it ever was in Britain,
where
all the children of the head of some ruling houses are automatically a
Herzog or Herzogin, much as imperial offspring were archdukes or
archduchesses.
A duchy (or
grand duchy) is the territory
ruled by a duke (or grand duke) or the lands (and/or incomes)
specifically
attached to the ducal title. A dukedom is the title itself. In the UK,
there are properly only two duchies, those of Lancaster and Cornwall;
these
are essentially corporations holding properties that provide income for
the Queen (who is "Duke" of Lancaster), and the Prince of Wales (who is
also the Duke of Cornwall); as only these two dukedoms carry such
special
"attachments" with the title, duchies are thus a royal preserve.
"Duke" is
normally a very exalted title; however,
when equating the dignity of some dukes, some insight is needed. For
example,
Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies created dukes in Naples almost by the
gross,
and these titles cannot be considered equal to dukes in the British or
other continental systems.
9.2. Marquess.
English
Marquess, Marchioness
German
Markgraf, Markgräfin (in English, Margrave, Margravine)
French
Marquis, Marquise
Italian
Marchese, Marchesa
Spanish
Marqués, Marquesa
Portuguese
Marquês-Marquesa
Related Terms:
marquessate, margravate.
This title
glosses to "march lord", i.e. a
noble in charge of the marches (the border regions) of a realm in
distinction
to other lords in more-settled lands. These were essentially warlords
with
broad powers and in this context, may be thought of as a "palatine"
title.
In earlier times, it was a rare title; it was later revived as a grade
between count and duke.
Jeff Leader
writes that
"How the
King Became His Majesty, by L.G.
Pine, [...] says margrave (Latin: marchio or margravius, Dutch:
marckgrave)
occurs first in the dispositions of Charlemagne."
As a senior
title (about two-thirds of British
dukes are also marquesses), it is not that common the United Kingdom,
at
least when compared to other countries (especially France where "petit
marquis" was a term of derision).
In Germany,
margraves were ruling, heading
there own little states and today are still accounted as formerly
ruling
houses (see the separate heading).
9.3. Earl,
Count, and Graf.
Latin
Comes, Comitissa
English
Earl, Countess
German
Graf, Gräfin;
Landgraf, Landgräfin (In English, Landgrave, Landgravine);
Pfalzgraf, Pfalzgräfin (In English, Count-Palatine,
Countess-Palatine)
French
Comte, Comtesse
Italian
Conte, Contessa
Spanish
Conde, Condesa
Portuguese
Conde-Condess
Swedish
Greve, Grevinde
Danish
Greve Grevinde
Dutch
Graaf, Gravin
Irish
Ard Tiarna, Bantiarna
Hungarian
Groef, Groefin
Related Terms:
earldom, comital, countly.
"Earl" is
related to Old Norse "jarl", and
is equivalent to "count", which itself comes from the Latin comes. This
in turn is related to the English word "county", which pretty much
explains
what a count was: the principal figure of the county. In Roman times,
the
comes was a courtier, an Imperial official, and actually outranked a
dux
(duke).
William I of
England regarded the Anglo-Saxon
"earl" as a synonym for "count", and while this was not correct, it was
a practical equivalency. Old English lacked a feminine and thus the
French
term was adopted for an earl's wife as well as for women who hold
earldoms
in their own right.
The German word
"graf" seems etymologically
related to the English "reeve", which comes from the Old English
"gerefe".
A reeve is an important appointed official, as with the "shire reeve",
i.e., the "sheriff". What English divides among several words, German
uses
a single word with prefixes, and generally it has a broader meaning
than
English "earl" or "count". "Graf", then, should not be understood as
being
perfectly equal to "earl" or "count", but as also containing the idea
of
"reeve", or "important official". In German lands, offices normally
thought
of as being appointive and held by commoners in Great Britain could be
hereditary and noble. The House of Thurn and Taxis, for example,
started
out life as the Imperial postmasters, a job one would not think of in
Britain
as ennobling.
Some will
maintain that a British earl outranks
any continental count. Compared to some other systems, especially those
that incorporated the results of the often slapdash practices of older
systems (e.g., Italy), there are proportionally fewer British earls
than
counts.
In France and
Italy, the title holder is "Firstname,
the Count of /title/", while his family members are, roughly,
"Firstname,
of the Count of /title/". This makes countly (and other titles) seem
far
more common than in the UK. With "count", "title inflation" is
particularly
notable.
François
Velde, speaking of title inflation,
says:
Since the
late 18th century (even before
the Revolution) petty nobles started using titles which were never
theirs.
No one bothered to rebuke them publicly, and these became known as
"titres
de courtoisie". These totally invented titles multiplied in the 19th c.
Landgraf/landgrave
(along with Pfalzgraf/Count-Palatine)
is inserted here with un-prefixed graf mostly because the distinction
is
difficult to make outside of German. The title is equivalent neither to
marquess nor viscount. A Landgraf was lower than Herzog or Markgraf,
but
definitely above a Graf in the pecking order. When a sovereign title,
(as
it was in one instance), it would outrank even a (non-ruling) duke or
prince.
Regarding the
status of the Irish titles provided
here (and under "Baron"), Patrick O'Shea writes:
"Ard Tiarna"
("High Lord") and "Tiarna"
("Lord"), respectively in literal translation; the titles properly
belonged
only to the male holders, and the female titles were courtesy titles
only
("Bantiarna" literally means "wife of a Lord"). Women could not, and
still
cannot, hold Gaelic feudal titles in their own right. There are no
equivalent
titles for other grades of nobility, as the Gaelic feudal system had
fewer
levels of heirarchy than the continental or Anglo-Norman systems. In
fact,
many Irish Lords of great rank, which could appropriately be styled
"Ard
Tiarna," prefer the simpler style of "Tiarna."
These titles
are distinct from those created
by the English Crown in Ireland (though some have the same geographical
names), which naturally follow the English system. The Kingdom of
Desmond
lost its independence in 1596, but the titles have been retained as
'incorporeal
property' as is the case with the many recognized titles granted by
other
non-regnant Royal Houses.
For further
discussions of Irish nobility
and kingship, see:
http://www.kwtelecom.com/heraldry/manor.html#T4
and especially,
Patrick O'Shea's site (and
it's collection of links) at:
http://www.finearts.sfasu.edu/uasal/noble.html
9.4. Viscount.
English
Viscount, Viscountess
French
Vicomte, Vicomtesse
Italian
Visconte, Viscontessa
Spanish
Vizconde, Vizcondesa
Portuguese
Visconde-Viscondessa
Related Terms:
viscountcy or viscounty.
This title is
mostly confined to the United
Kingdom and France, though it appears rarely in Italy and
elsewhere.
This is the
leftover title, what the king
bestowed on someone who was not important enough to merit being made a
count. It's a rather late innovation. It originated in France, as the
count's
deputy, i.e, the "vice-count".
9.5. Baron.
English
Baron, Baroness
German
Baron, Baronin; Freiherr, Freifrau
French
Baron, Baronne
Italian
Barone, Baronessa
Spanish
Baron, Baronesa
Portugese
Barão-Baronesa
Irish
Tiarna, Bantiarna
Related Terms:
barony, baronial, baronage.
Barons were
originally (in Britain) those
who held their lands directly from the king. Not all British nobles
have
baronies and many viscounts, for example, do not. (--Louis Epstein) The
majority of the nobility in Britain are just plain barons. In the UK,
life
peers are always barons or baronesses (as with Baroness Thatcher).
Once, a baron
was an important noble, especially
before the Renaissance. It was the barons who brought King John to heel
at Runnymede, and "robber-baron" has entered English as the term for
one
of the lords who collected "tolls" from Rhine river-traffic. In olden
times,
when there was little differentiation in degree or rank between
neighboring
nobles, "baron" could signify any noble, large or small, a meaning with
some currency today on the continent, roughly equivalent in meaning to
"peer" or "lord" in the UK.
The terms
"Baron, Baronin", can be found in
use in German lands, but apparently not that commonly. Freiherr and
Freifrau
are preferred, and there seems to be a perception that "Baron" is bit
under
a "Freiherr". "Freiherrin" seems to be an obsolete form for a baron's
wife.
D.A. Willis comments:
Freifrau is
a wife of Freiherr, Freiin
is his daughter. I used to think that Freiin was an abbreviation of
Freiherrin,
but I was quickly corrected by several Freiherren and Freiinen (plural
of Freiin). This is the only case in German that I am aware of where
the
wife and daughter have different words for their titles.
The status of
barons varies. It can be a very
high title or something of little consequence. It is definitely a noble
title, however, and needs to be clearly distinguished from
"baronet".
9.6.
Baronet.
Related
Terms: baronetcy, baronetage.
This may be
thought of as a hereditary knighthood.
For convenience, it may also be thought of as a noble title, though
there
are those who would disagree, at least as used in the British system. A
baronet is certainly not a peer; in the United Kingdom, baronets are
not
entitled to a seat in the House of Lords (unless, of course, they
additionally
hold a peerage). Guy Stair Sainty writes: "In Germany the rank of
knight
was hereditary, but it was always viewed differently from knighthood
earned."
The German
"Ritter", when part of a last name,
indicates the German equivalent of a baronetcy. A woman holding a
baronetcy
in her own right is termed a baronetess.
When one picks
through lesser German titles,
such things as "Waldgraf", Rheingraf", "Burggraf" and the such pop up.
On the whole, these seem obsolete, yet, there are a few families who
cling
to them; they are also encountered on title-lists of otherwise far more
exalted personages. The German system was more flexible when it came to
titles; as has been demonstrated, it was also broader in its definition
of nobility. Since we have been using the British system to classify
titles,
these are placed here at the end, somewhere between-and-after the
British
sense of Baronet-as-a-knight and Baronet-as-petty-noble.
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