Ranks of nobility and peerage

Traditional ranks among royalty, peers, and nobles are rooted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although they vary over time and between geographic regions (for example, one region's prince might be equal to another's grand duke), the following is a fairly comprehensive list that provides information on both general ranks and specific differences.

• Royal:
  • Emperor, rules¹ an empire
  • King, rules¹ a kingdom (kings of independent (sovereign) kingdoms are ranked above kings of imperial kingdoms)
  • (Arch Duke, successors to the imperial throne (used only by the Habsburgs in Austria))
  • Grand Duke, ruling¹ a grand duchy
• Princely:
  • electing Prince, Elector, Kurfürst in German, electing the Emperor
  • Duke, who rules¹ a duchy
  • sovereign Prince, Fürst in German, ruling¹ a Principality
  • Prince, Prinz in German, junior members of a royal or princely family
• Peers:²
  • Duke³
  • Marquess / Margrave, and the German Landgraf & Pfalzgraf, theoretically the ruler¹ of a margravate
  • Count / Earl, theoretically the ruler of a county
  • Viscount (vice-count) and Baron, in Britain the lowest rank of the peerage, had tax-exempted estates, and often official non-hereditary positions

1) Loss of sovereignty or fief does not neccessarily lead to loss of title. The position in the ranking table is however accordingly adjusted. The occurrence of fiefs has changed from time to time, and from country to country: for instance dukes in England rarely had a duchy to rule.

2) The term Peer is used in Britain, but the division could be argued to be of general value.

3) Dukes who are not actually or formerly sovereign, such as all British, French, and Spanish dukes, or who are not sons of sovereigns, as titulary dukes in many other countries, would not be considered to be of princely rank.

In Germany, the actual rank of the holder of a title is, however, dependent on not only the title as such, but on for instance the degree of sovereignty and on the rank of the lord of the title-holder. But also such matters as the age of the princely dynasty play a role (Uradel, Briefadel, altfürstliche, neufürstliche, see: German nobility[?]).

Thus, any sovereign ruler would be higher than any formerly sovereign, i.e. mediatized[?], family of any rank (thus, the Fürst of Waldeck, sovereign until 1918, was higher than the Duke of Arenberg, mediatized). Members of a formerly sovereign house ranked higher than the regular nobility. Among the regular nobility, those whose titles derived from the Holy Roman Empire ranked higher than those whose titles were granted by one of the German princes after 1806, no matter what title was held.

German comital titles

In Holy Roman Empire the title was combined with the word for the jurisdiction or domain the nobleman was responsible for. These titles represented special concessions of authority or rank. Only the more important titles came to remain in use until modern times. Many counts were titled Graf without any additional qualification.

Markgraf	Margrave	military governor of a border province	Examples: Margrave of Brandenburg, Margrave of Meissen
Pfalzgraf	Count palatine[?]	viceroy at an imperial palace	Born by the Count Palatine of the Rhine and junior branches of his family.
Landgraf	Landgrave	jurisdiction over often large rural regions.	Examples: Landgrave of Thuringia, Landgrave of Hesse, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg[?]
Burggraf	Burgrave	military and civil judicial governor of a city	Examples: Burgrave of Nuremberg.
Rheingraf	Rhinegrave	with holdings along the Rhine, levying tolls for passage along the river
Altgraf	Altgrave	with holdings in mountainous regions, particularly along garrisoned passes, claiming tolls for access and passage
Wiltgraf	Wildgrave	responsible over wilderness and forests
Raugraf		jurisdiction over waste ground, and uninhabited districts	This title was used exclusively by the children of Elector Palatine Karl I's bigamous second marriage.

See also: Titles of nobility (on some European languages), Royal and noble styles

External links

• European Noble, Princely, Royal, and Imperial Titles (http://www.heraldica.org/topics/odegard/titlefaq.htm)
• Feudal Hierarchy (scroll down) (http://www.friesian.com/rank.htm)
• A Glossary of Titles in 35 Languages (http://www.heraldica.org/faqs/titel.htm)
• The German nobility (http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/nobility_faq)