What nations today still have “functioning” aristocrasies? I suppose I mean, titles of nobility other than those for Royal families.
You mean besides Great Britain?
Depends on what you understand by the term ‘functioning’.
Europe for instance could be described as having five kinds of aristocracy. (Note that this is my own personal classification for the purpose of making all this somewhat comprehensible and not any official or standard way of categorizing nobility)
1. Royal extended family - e.g. the princes and princesses who hold title of nobility by extension to their birthright as does for instance the royal cousins in Sweden.
2. Privileged hereditary - Titles of nobility that are passed from parent to child, and carry official recognition by the state and thus engenders a certain ranked privilege. The British House of Lords is full of them, although as of 1999 at least the seat in the house isn’t inherited.
3. Unprivileged hereditary - In most European monarchies (all actually) there is a registry of the noble families. If you are a direct descendant to any of these families and can prove it you are recognized by the other families as a peer and thus you are technically speaking noble. That usually doesn’t mean anything more than that you gain access to a title such as Baron/Baroness or Count/Countess which is otherwise restricted in use much the same way Dr. is reserved for people with a PhD. There is usually a head of the family that holds the main title and then the rest get some kind of lesser title or in some cases none at all.
4. Unrecognized hereditary – Titles of nobility that have become obsolete in their function, but are still entertained and recognized socially although absolutely not recognized by the state. Germany and France being republics have discarded nobility officially yet there is a Prince of Paris and a Prince of Saxen Coburg, and they certainly use their titles on their visiting cards plus enjoy certain respect for it, even officially. In the case of France this is rather controversial, which might have something to do with the workings of a certain Madame Guillotine back in the day. In the case of Germany it’s still a little sensitive although close to a hundred years passing and the little interlude with that little guy from Braunau seems to be doing the German aristocracy marvels as far as PR goes.
5. Personal honorary peerage – e.g. The British Knighthood which is bestowed upon deserving subjects by HM QEII and cannot be passed on to heirs or other second party. Interestingly enough HM QEII can bestow the honor upon non-British citizens but they will not be considered noble and will not enjoy use of the formal Sir or Dame although if knighted into the Order of the Garter for instance they may add KG (with whatever level and what-not) as appendage to their name.
Oh then there is a sixth and a seventh category being titles by marriage and bought titles, but IMHO they don’t really count if not category 1 (royalty), even if I sort of technically held one myself for a while.
Category 1 is technically speaking landed nobility in as much as that they hold land, although this is symbolic. Category 2 and 3 used to be landed, but are now land holders under the same good old laws as any other commoner (there are a few cases were land ownership that resembles the old fief style of the feudal times linger, but off the cuff I can only think of one that I know of personally and two that I have heard of). In England it’s slightly more complicated, but that’s academic.
Europe is full of nobility across the scale although the United Kingdom is the only place to still keep a set of category 2 nobles with any serious dedication. Most European monarchies have restricted the doling out of titles to some level. The Swedish King for instance has completely renounced his right to bestow peerage and even royal awards like the Seraphim Order that do not carry title are restricted to foreign nationals that have done extraordinary service to the Kingdom and the noble families themselves will not recognize titles registered after 1971 independent of when the title was bestowed. The last Swedish peerage was given to the explorer Sven Hedin in 1936, He chose something like a silver globe centered on Asia surrounded by three sextants on a blue background as his coat of arms, which I might say out of a heraldic viewpoint is an abomination worthy of some kind of severe punishment (I don’t have the exact blazon at hand so I might be constructing it a little wrong, but trust me it’s ugly).
Generally speaking it gets kind of complicated to weed out the question the OP puts for Europe since there are always exceptions to these rules. To make it simple one could say that nobility of at least category 1, 2, 3 and/or 5 exists in all European monarchies. They are: England, Scotland, Wales (or the United Kingdom if you like), Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Spain and Monaco. Out of those it is only the three in Great Britain that have a truly functioning nobility if you thereby mean non-royal aristocracy with influence on state matters. You can safely bet that all Europe, including the former Eastern Block entertains a solid few unrecognized hereditary aristocrats clinging desperately to a bygone era and being urged to do so by the paparazzi press for reasons obvious.
Other places with some level of ‘functioning’ nobility would include most of the countries on the Arabian Peninsula, Morocco, Jordan, Brunei, Thailand, Samoa, and Japan (if you count the Imperial family). I am sure there are more but I’m drawing a blank right now it being somewhat early in the morning.
Sparc
Since I kind of left that list bit half baked; here’s a list of all the monarchies of the world:
Europe
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Netherlands
Belgium
United Kindom
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Liechtenstein
Spain
Principality of Monaco
Africa
Morocco
Lesotho
Swaziland
Ghana (sort of)
Middle East
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Bahrain
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
Sultanate of Oman
Rest of Asia
Nepal
Kingdom of Bhutan
Thailand
Malaysia
Brunei Darussalam
Japan
The Kingdom of Cambodia
Oceania
Tonga
Western Somoa
The FAQ on inbred useless morons.
Oh, excuse me, “royalty”.
Norway used to have a few Barons or whatnot (e.g, Rosendahl) but they all died out. It’s just the immediate royal family now (and then just barely).
Even Brazil reveres the decendents of its two emperors, from the 67 years it was an empire.
Circulo Monárquico do Rio de Janeiro (Monarchical Circle of Rio de Janeiro)
Beware of loud music starting if you visit that page.
From what I understand, this isn’t an aristocracy recognized and/or supported by the modern government, but these people are celebreties and are refered to by noble titles within Brazil. The highest title is “Prince of Brazil,” although they do know who would be emperor if the empire were still in place (it’s Dom Luiz Gastão Maria José Pio de Orleans e Bragança e Wittelsbach, Prince of Brazil, Prince of Orleans and Braganza, if you want to know).
How balanced a view is not that then just?
Although there has been a good few cases of inbreeding in Royal families, I think you’ll find that you err as regards to the current lineages of Europe at least, and probably for the rest of the world as well.
Useless? Not in my opinion, I’ve had plenty of use of royalty. You could of course have other heads of state like Presidents, only problem is that they’re usually too busy running the country or some-such nonsense to be useful the way modern royalty is. Can’t say that I run into too many PMs and Presidents at cocktail parties and other functions, save the German one since he’s more like a king anyway - useless as you put it.
As for the moron part. Well I can’t say that they all come across as the brightest of geniuses, but I wouldn’t go as far as putting it to the level of moron. Try averagely intelligent or within the normal spread. The Queen of Denmark is actually quite a bit above average intelligence and extremely well educated as an example, to not mention charming, witty and quite common in her habits. OK CXVIG of Sweden nmight be close to moronic, but he’s a funny chap socially and quite harmless.
Republican (in the classic way) by any chance, ftg?
Sparc
Could you elaborate on this, please? If I understand you, you’re suggesting that the nobles stood up to Hitler. But ,IIRC, although the nobles regarded Hitler personally with distaste, they still mostly lined up behind him, partly out of fear and partly because he was such a staunch anti-communist.
Hold on there, javaman! That is not what I meant at all
I meant that almost a hundred years after the German nobility, with Kaiser WII as figurehead looked like the source of all things evil, nasty and war mongering and post the NSDAP they now look positively benign.
You’re right in that the aristocracy as a group didn’t oppose Hitler, although as conservative politicians a few of them did. It’s often forgotten that what little (and little it was) opposition Hitler saw in the early thirties was coming from the right wing. But that has nary to do with the nobles.
Sparc
Hold on there, javaman! That is not what I meant at all
I meant that almost a hundred years after the German nobility, with Kaiser WII as figurehead looked like the source of all things evil, nasty and war mongering and post the NSDAP they now look positively benign.
You’re right in that the aristocracy as a group didn’t oppose Hitler, although as conservative politicians a few of them did. It’s often forgotten that what little (and little it was) opposition Hitler saw in the early thirties was coming from the right wing. But that has nary to do with the nobles.
Sparc