Nobility, a rare quality in this modern technological world of today.

There are many who have placed themselves on the front steps before the masses who are impressive in their appearance but have little to no substance beneath their blinding armor. Those who demand recognition or respect get none from me.

What they do is expose that they have not rightfully earned this position and if they had they would not be standing there before me or anyone else.

Why is it that people make it so difficult to be nice and polite, to have good manners, to say please and thank you and you're welcome? Even the least educated and unfortunate can wear this jewelry.

All of these qualities do not belong solely to the noble for nobility is not a birthright - it is defined and reaches the pentacle of excellence through the discipline of ones character.
It is carried within them and not before them and when it is right it will shine, thus, announcing their presence without demand.

And if they be humble to the awareness of their presence, in any situation, or in any place, then there is no door that will be left unopened, no gate drawn and no sword pointed in their direction.

They need no document to verify who they are nor a speaker to announce them.

In their finest cloth they will sit upon the ground and in their finest rags they will stand tall.

They harm none with their words or their actions, for you see, these are the ones who have learned the best of what is the very foundation of civilization.
These are the civilized and none other.

And it is through their ways that their compassion for life is extended and shines in the most dire of times.
To pause in what they are doing, to take a moment and wipe the tears of a crying child;
to aliviate the suffering of the elders when they begin to loose hope and faith;
to give food and shelter to those in need. These are the things that are important.
They do not have to be asked to do these things. They do not have to be told.
They do what they know to be right and ask for nothing in return.

But what is this thing, Nobility?



By definition we find the following...

A state-privileged social class which are historically accompanied by hereditary titles; aristocracy; magnanimousness; grandeur (the quality of elevation of mind and exaltation of character or ideals or conduct); noblesse (the state of being of noble birth), but which may also be personal only.
Titles of nobility are usually associated with present or former monarchies. A group of people in a society who have been given legally-recognized titles, by inheriting them or receiving them from a monarch or other authority.

There are particular crowns corresponding to the different grades of nobility. The nobility of a person might be either inherited or earned. In its most general and strict sense is an acknowledged preeminence that is hereditary, ie, legitimate descendants (or all male descendants, in some societies) of nobles are nobles, unless explicitly stripped of the privilege. In this respect, nobility is distinguished from the peerage: the latter can be passed to only a single member of the family. The terms aristocrat and aristocracy are a less formal means to refer to persons belonging to this social milieu. Those lacking a distinct title, such as junior siblings of peers (and perhaps even the children of 'self-made' VIPs) may be considered aristocrats, moving within a small social circle at the apex of a hierarchical social pyramid. Basically, the class of people qualified, usually by inherited status, to exercise lordship.
This was a very small part of the total population, and even within this class actual power was exercised by a minority: women were generally excluded from lordship (although a widow might rule a region for the rest of her life); in many areas, estates passed undivided to the eldest son, leaving other children relatively powerless (although still wealthy and privileged).

Nobility also came to be regarded as a set of characteristics, such as courtesy, honor, and generosity.

Those who hold a rank above the degree of a Knight, and are distinguished by titles and privileges.
Somewhat of a loose term used generally to refer to the peerage.
The five ranks of peerage in descending order of precedence are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron (Lord).

The term originally referred to those who were "known" or "notable" and was applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies. In the feudal system (in Europe and elsewhere), the nobility were generally those who held a fief, often land or office, under vassalage, i.e., in exchange for allegiance and various, mainly military, services to the Monarch and at lower levels to another nobleman. It rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. While noble status formerly conferred significant privileges, today, in most Western countries, noble status is a purely honorary dignity. In the United Kingdom, where some peerage titles, until recently, guaranteed a seat in the Upper House of the Parliament, there are still some residual privileges.

Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, distinct from socio-economic status which is mainly based on income and possessions. Being wealthy or influential does not automatically make one a noble, nor are all nobles wealthy and influential (aristocratic families have lost their fortunes in various ways, and the concept of the 'poor nobleman' is almost as old as nobility itself). Countries without a feudal tradition do not have a nobility as such.

Various republics, including the United States, Mexico, and Italy have expressly abolished the granting and/or use of titles of nobility - although the latter two did so formerly.
Although many societies have a privileged 'upper class' with great wealth and power, the status is not necessarily hereditary and does not entail a separate legal status, or different forms of address.

European nobility originated from the feudal/seignorial system that arose in Europe during the Middle Ages. Originally, knights or nobles were mounted warriors who swore allegiance to their sovereign and promised to fight for him or her in exchange for an allocation of land (usually together with serfs living there). During the time period known as the Military Revolution, nobles gradually lost their role of raising and commanding private armies, as many nations created cohesive national armies. This was coupled with a loss of the social-economic power of the nobility, owing to the economic changes of the Renaissance and the growing economic importance of the merchant classes (or bourgeoisie), which increased still further during the Industrial Revolution. In countries where the nobility was the dominant class, the bourgeoisie gradually grew in power; a rich city merchant was more influential than a minor rural nobleman. However, in many countries at this time, the nobility retained great social and political importance; for instance, the UK's government was dominated by the nobility until the middle of the 19th century and thereafter the powers of the nobility were progressively reduced by legislation (see Reform of the House of Lords).

In France, influential high bourgeois, most particularly the members of the parlements (courts of justice), obtained noble titles from the king. The old nobility of military origin, the noblesse d'�p�e ("nobility of the sword") became increasingly irritated by this newer noblesse de robe ("nobility of the gown"). In the last years of the ancien r�gime, before the French Revolution, the old nobility, intent on keeping its privileges, had pushed for restrictions of certain offices and orders of chivalry to noblemen who could demonstrate that their family had enough "noble quarterings" (in French, 'quartiers de noblesse'), a reference to a noble's ability to display armorially their descents from armigerous noble forebears in each of their lines of descent to demonstrate that they were descended from old noble families, who bore arms that could be quartered with their own male line arms, and thus prove that they did not derive merely from bourgeois families recently elevated to noble rank (although historians such as William Doyle have disputed this so-called 'Aristocratic Reaction'. (W. Doyle, Essays on Eighteenth Century France, London, 1995). A noble could be asked to provide proof of noble antecedents by showing a genealogy displaying seize quartiers (sixteen quarterings) or even trente-deux quartiers (thirty-two quartering) indicating noble descent on all bloodlines back five generations (to great-great grandparents) or six generations (great-great-great grandparents), respectively. This illustrates the traditional link in many countries between heraldry and nobility; in those countries where heraldry is used, nobles have almost always been armigerous, and have used heraldry to demonstrate their ancestry and family history. (However, it is important to note that heraldry has never been restricted to the noble classes in most countries, and being armigerous does not necessarily demonstrate nobility.)

Nobles typically commanded resources, such as food, money, or labor, from common members or nobles of lower rank of their societies, and could exercise religious or political power over them. Also, typically, but not necessarily, nobles were entitled to land property, which was often reflected in the title. For example, the title Earl of Chesterfield tells about property, while the title Earl Cairns was created for a surname. However all the above is not universal; quite often nobility was associated only with social respect and certain social privileges. An example of the latter would be early 20th-century Polish nobility (szlachta) after their political, economic, judicial and religious privileges were abolished in 1921 and they remained only landed proprietors on the same legal basis as their landed-commoner neighbours. In the modern age, the notion of inherited nobility with special rights has become, in the Western World, increasingly seen as irrelevant to the modern way of life. The founding fathers of the United States rejected anything that could have helped in recreating a nobility; the French Revolution abolished the nobility and its special privileges (though some nobility titles would be recreated by Napoleon I and III, they were mostly honorific).

A list of noble titles for different European countries can be found at Royal and Noble Ranks.
To learn how to properly address holders of these titles, see Royal and Noble Styles.
(Neither of these two are presented here).

Some con artists also sell fake titles of nobility, often with impressive-looking documents to back them up. These may be illegal, depending on local law. They are more often illegal in countries that actually have nobilities such as European monarchies. In the U.S., such commerce would be a form of fraud, but it would only victimize the buyer of the supposed titles and would not threaten an established class of nobles with enforceable titles.

Encyclop�dia Britannica. 29 Nov. 2009
In literature, an idealized concept of uncivilized man, who symbolizes the innate goodness of one not exposed to the corrupting influences of civilization.

The glorification of the noble savage is a dominant theme in the Romantic writings of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
For example, �mile, ou, De l�education, 4 vol. (1762), is a long treatise on the corrupting influence of traditional education; the autobiographical Confessions (written 1765�70) reaffirms the basic tenet of man�s innate goodness; and Dreams of a Solitary Walker (1776�78) contains descriptions of nature and man�s natural response to it. The concept of the noble savage, however, can be traced to ancient Greece, where Homer, Pliny, and Xenophon idealized the Arcadians and other primitive groups, both real and imagined. Later Roman writers such as Horace, Virgil, and Ovid gave comparable treatment to the Scythians. From the 15th to the 19th centuries, the noble savage figured prominently in popular travel accounts and appeared occasionally in English plays such as John Dryden�s Conquest of Granada (1672), in which the term noble savage was first used, and in Oroonoko (1696) by Thomas Southerne, based on Aphra Behn�s novel about a dignified African prince enslaved in the British colony of Surinam.

Fran�ois-Ren� de Chateaubriand sentimentalized the North American Indian in Atala (1801), Ren� (1802), and Les Natchez (1826), as did James Fenimore Cooper in the Leatherstocking Tales (1823�41), which feature the noble chief Chingachgook and his son Uncas. The three harpooners of the ship Pequod in Melville�s Moby Dick (1851), Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego, are other examples.

So there you have it. What the aristocracy has to say about themselves or a member of their elite minority. These are the explanations of what all others have been educated, led to believe and even made, if not forced, to follow throughout the centuries, throughout the world, as the image of a Noble. There are, however, some very good aspects of these individuals of self-claimed hereditary title and that being the living example of good character, honor, devotion, loyalty, dedication, respect, humbleness, humility, courtesy and generosity.
But what happened? The noble class failed itself and became the corrupting influences of civilization instead of it's finest work and results. Therefore, are we now left with a world without nobles? Not at all. I am sure you know personally at least one individual who stands out, without wanting to, that personifies these qualities in every respect.

I found the following piece which I believed deserved a rightful place here but, unfortunately, the author as well as the source are unknown.
Believe me, I've looked.

In our modern day culture chivalry, nobility and loyalty are character traits as seemingly obsolete as the Medieval Days themselves. But as Robert Lewis writes in his book entitled, "Raising a Moder-Day Knight" these traits are not merely passing fades fleeting with cultural trends but are intrinsic to the nature of man and essential for his masculinity. This being the case - as I'm sure none would argue - then the question remains, what are we doing in an intentional way to instill these traits in our own sons, who by the way...do become men?

Without mourning and weaping for the men of yesteryear, any mother so priviledged as to have a tangible opportunity to positively impact this culture ought to take advantage and read Lewis's book. In closing I'll leave you with his words and not mine - it will serve to benefit you greatly today.

"A Knight's Code of Conduct"

Once again, we can learn a thing or two from our medieval counterparts. From an early age, the page and then the squire apprenticed under men with social and moral ideals; they were personally trained in ethical standards that gave form and substance to life despite the morally hostile culture of the world they lived.