贵族
维库，知识与思想的自由文库
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貴族最初指的是奴隶制社会和封建社會中，因权力、财产高于其他阶级而形成的上層階級。包括军事贵族、世俗贵族、宗教贵族。经过演变，贵族制度在一些国家延续下来，形成了稳定的贵族阶级。与平民阶级相比，贵族阶级享有更多的特权，拥有更大的政治权利。 貴族同其他阶级的最明显区别是拥有爵位。爵位可能是世襲的，也可能是非世袭的。
[编辑] 早期的贵族古羅馬時期，貴族是享有特权的公民。他们和平民階級相對立、形成特權階級的公民家庭集團。在公元前400年之前，贵族曾垄断一切官职和圣职。罗马皇帝必须是贵族出身。贵族免服兵役。4世纪以后，贵族逐渐演变成非世袭的荣誉头衔。 [编辑] 西方的貴族制度早期的贵族在社会发展中从封建社会的骑士阶层（或武士阶层）演变而来。最初，骑士或贵族是得到封建领主分封土地（通常带有农奴）并因此向领主效忠、承诺为领主而战的骑兵。而贵族私人拥有和控制的军队在军事革命中逐渐因毛瑟枪的发明而退出历史舞台。 一个人的贵族身份可能是由继承得到的或通过各种途径争取得到的。对于贵族身份最普遍也是最严格的理解是世袭，也就是贵族合法的继承人（在一些社会是所有男性继承人）就是贵族，除非被明确的剥夺了特权。在这方面，“贵族身份”区分于英国的“贵族阶层”（peerage）：后者只能由家族中唯一一人继承。贵族（aristocrat）和贵族阶级是对这个阶层中人的非正式定义。那些没有明确头衔的，如贵族（peer）的弟妹（可能包括私生子）可能被认为是贵族（aristocrat），但地位徘徊于等级社会金字塔顶端外的一小圈中。“贵族血统（Blue Blood）”在英语中仅指贵族出身和继承。他可能仅仅是那个社会群体一种苍白的自我慰藉，更多的只是对于血管里的贵族血统的表示。这种称谓可能是上流社会对于银中毒的专有称呼。银中毒是一种因为银摄入引起的永久性皮肤变蓝，而这在餐桌上和医疗中有广泛使用。 In the modern era, 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. In France, influential high bourgeois, most particularly the members of the parlements (courts of justice), obtained nobility titles from the King. The old nobility of military origin, the noblesse d'épée ("sword nobility") became increasingly irritated by this newer noblesse de robe ("gown nobility"). In the last years of the ancien régime, 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. 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. 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 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 obligatory; quite often nobility was associated only with social respect and certain social privileges. An example of the latter would be Polish szlachta. 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 may help in recreating a nobility; the French Revolution abolished the nobility and its special rights (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. 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. 
[编辑] 参见詳見 Category:貴族: [编辑] 外部連結
introduction in English)
database of European noble genealogy |
