Ah, I think I see…it was originally hijos d’algo, no?
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:
ETA: “Grand Prince” (or equivalent non-English term) was used in Eastern Europe by non-Catholic sovereigns.
Fair enough.
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…
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.
Yep.
And it was a very P.G. Wodehouse memory 
1970s and '80s, but hearing those conversations felt more like the 1900s…
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.