# European Aristocracy in the Last 100 Years **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796 "2012-01-08T04:06:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796/21 "2012-01-10T07:09:00Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I’m suddenly feeling very German… memories of _hidalgos_ (lit. “children of something”…) Ah, I think I see…it was originally _hijos d’algo_, no? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796/22 "2012-01-10T11:10:39Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > A Duke or a Count or an Insertinheritabletitlenamehere who is head of a country is a sovereign; Kings and Emperors aren’t the only possible sovereigns, and the one that you’re thinking of as “bestowable only by the Pope” is Emperor. I was asking for a definition of “royalty.” I already knew what “sovereign” meant. 🆒 Each Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope; this is why most Emperors were technically just “Emperor-Elect.” An established Kingship, on the other hand, is inheritable without Papal consent once it is established – but how does it get established? Castille got “promoted” from County to Kingdom, if I understand correctly, when the County was held by the King of Leon. From Wikipedia we see a clearer example in Hungary: > [@](#): > > Before the 1000 AD, Hungary wasn’t yet recognized as a Kingdom and the ruler of the Hungarians was styled Grand Prince of the Hungarians. The first King of Hungary, Stephen I. was crowned on 25 December 1000 (or 1 January 1001) with the crown Pope Sylvester II had sent him with the consent of Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor. ETA: “Grand Prince” (or equivalent non-English term) was used in Eastern Europe by non-Catholic sovereigns. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796/23 "2012-01-10T19:52:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It’s still an inherited status, though. Fair enough. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796/24 "2012-01-10T20:16:00Z")
I assume it depends on the country. IIRC: British nobility’s special standing slowly ebbed away thanks to more egalitarian laws, until only the titles and a few special rights and privileges remain. Much of France’s nobility was deposed during the Revolution in 1790; there was an effort to restore it after Napoleon, but then it came and went with the tide of the politics. Napoleon upset the applecart with a lot of Europe, plus there was a serious social upheaval in 1848. German/Austrian/Hungarian nobility basically lost all rights with the end of empire after WWI? Russia ditto, plus firing squad. Any small eastern countries that had not deposed their nobility by WWII, the Soviets did it for them. I assume the more democratic European countries (like Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, etc.) followed the same path as Britain in gradually removing the legal privileges of nobility. Major upheavals due to wars probably hastened this process. A few very tiny states, like Vatican or Monaco, retain their original structure… ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796/25 "2012-01-10T21:55:40Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > … privelEged class… Also known as “People who are important enough that they are allowed to carry swords around in public.” If I believe old family lore, I’m a male-line descendant of a minor titled lord who emigrated to the US. Even if it was true AND I had the exactly correct descent through firstborns and/or younger brothers of bachelors AND the title was not forfeited by emigration or US citizenship, the title was French and I don’t think it even legally exists anymore at all. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796/26 "2012-01-10T22:34:25Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Ah, I think I see…it was originally _hijos d’algo_, no? Yep. And it was a very P.G. Wodehouse memory 🙂 1970s and '80s, but hearing those conversations felt more like the 1900s… > [@septimus](#): > > Castille got “promoted” from County to Kingdom, if I understand correctly, when the County was held by the King of Leon. Castille had been created as a dependent County; flipped allegiances between Leon, Navarre and independence (at which point its Count was a sovereign); at one point its Count became King of Leon by marriage and later they stayed together as a personal union; eventually the Kingdom of Leon became the Kingdom of Castille-Leon became the Kingdom of Castille. So it’s not that Castille became a Kingdom, but that an already-established Kingdom changed its name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-aristocracy-in-the-last-100-years/608796.md?page=1)