Barons, viscounts, counts, marquises, dukes

On major formal occasions, the count wore a crimson velvet coat trimmed with white fur trim and three ermine skins sewn into his soft hat to indicate that those with more fiefdoms were called "barons", and their status was replaced by sons or other family members in order. If a nobleman has no heirs, his close relatives may inherit his fiefdom in accordance with his will or during his lifetime, and with the approval of the King and the High Court. But in most cases it was the king who took back the title. In general, British titles and titles of nobility cannot be transferred or sold at will. In order to maintain the size of the nobility group and for other reasons, most of the kings would add a moderate amount of nobility.

In England, the most famous order is the Order of Garter, created in the mid-4th century. Legend has it that Edward III established the title to commemorate a seemingly unrelated event. At a ball celebrating the capture of Calais, the beautiful Countess of Salisbury dropped a blue garter, which was picked up by Edward III and wrapped around her lap. Later these words became the motto of the King's founding of the Garter Order and the awarding of the Order of Garter in 1449, and it appeared on the medal along with the blue garter and the cross of St. George, inspiring the samurai to fight in defiance of death in war, which at the time was mainly the Hundred Years' War. Edward himself was a member of the Garter Knights. He and his favorite samurai discussed around the round table, dined together, and presided over the samurai's martial arts many times, which revived the declining chivalry. and made the Order of the Garter the most attractive noble medal in Britain in the future.

The origin of the nobility of continental Europe is roughly as follows: in the beginning, there were only dukes, counts, and barons. Among them, the duke is supposed to be the provincial administrative or military governor after Diocletian reformed the Roman provinces, and was later used by the barbarians to refer to the great lord. The Count was the commander of the army of the Clovis dynasty. But because often with military service granted territories, he also became a lord. Baron is an honorific title for the dignitaries of the court. The viscount and the marquis were created as vice-earls and vice-dukes, respectively. These titles were also inherited as fiefs during the annexation of the fiefs in the Carolingian era, and gradually became knighthoods (just as the Elector of the Rhine-Baradin was himself a Count of the Imperial Palace, but he was also the head of the Emperor's stables). The Marquis of Brandenburg, like the Emperor's courtiers, had the title of fief, but there were too few people to become knights). Therefore, many nobles who have a territory but do not have an official title take the territory as their title. Add an infix in between. Translated to Mr. So-and-so in such and such a place. Many famous families, including the Bourbon family, which would later reign in half of Europe, were originally from these untitled families.

Titles in foreign countries

When you read Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice, you will be greeted by the Duke of Venice who presided over the court trial, and the Count of Barratin, the British Baron Fogenburg, the German Duke of Saxon, and so on. Readers who are new to foreign literature are often dazzled and confused by these titles. Therefore, understanding a little about the origin and connotation of foreign titles is essential knowledge for reading foreign literary works.

Titles were a hierarchical system of feudal nobility within European feudal monarchies. It first appeared in the Middle Ages and continues to be used in some countries in modern times. Generally, the level of the sub-title is determined by the amount of land occupied, which can be mainly divided into five categories: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron.

Duke: Among the nobility, the duke is the first rank and has the highest status. The origin of this title is threefold: first, the military chief of the Germanic tribes during the disintegration of European clan societies; the second was the military chief of the ancient Roman tribes; The third is the border province general in the ancient Roman era, and later referred to the local military and political chief, whose Latin originally meant "commander-in-chief". With the development of feudal relations and the strengthening of royal power, the duke became the upper echelon of the ruling class. In England, dukes were originally given titles by King Edward III in the 14th century, and all the people who were crowned dukes were members of the royal family. It was only in the fifteenth century that this practice was broken, and a small number of non-royal members were made dukes.

Marquises: Marquis is the second rank of nobility. During the reign of Charlemagne, it referred to the governor of the border with special powers, equivalent to a vassal prince, and after the division of Charlemagne's empire, it became an independent large feudal lord. After the feudal monarchy was strengthened, the marquis became a title between duke and count, and its status was equal to that of other counts, and it was not until the tenth to the fourteenth century that the status of the marquis was confirmed above the earl.

Count: In the Roman Empire, the count was the emperor's attendant, in charge of the military, civil, and financial powers, and sometimes served as a local official. Later, its status gradually declined, between the marquis and the viscount, and it was the third estate of the nobility. In England, the title of earl is the longest, and it was the highest title in England until the Black Prince Edward was made a duke in 1237. The name comes from Denmark in Scandinavia.

Viscount: Originally a state official in the Frankish Kingdom, the viscount was first given by King Charlemagne in the eighth century and later spread to other continental European countries. At first, the viscount was the earl's deputy, and later it stood on its own and could also be hereditary. The viscount title was not introduced to England until the 15th century, when Bomond John was the first to be made an English viscount in 1440, a position above that of a baron.

Baron: A baron is the lowest rank of the noble titles. In the 11th-12th centuries, it was a direct vassal of the kings of European monarchies or large feudal lords. In English, the word baron, introduced by the Normans during the conquest of the European continent, originally meant "just an ordinary man", and later evolved into "a powerful man". At that time, the great tenants of England who received land directly from the king could be called barons, but this was not divided by the king. It was not until 1387 that Richard II John Beecham became a baron that the baron became the official title of the English nobility.

Among the five titles of nobility mentioned above, they are divided into two categories: hereditary nobility and lifelong nobility according to whether they can be passed on to future generations. Hereditary nobility can be inherited by the eldest son after death, and lifelong nobility can only be held by the person while he is alive, and his son cannot inherit after death. The uncle of the English poet Byron was a hereditary nobleman, and after his death, his nephew Byron received a hereditary title. The young baron Fogenburgi in The Merchant of Venice also falls into this category.

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