Abstract
The transformation of a medieval nobility into a landed aristocracy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is examined. It is shown that monarchs used the system of royal honours as a way of generating income and brought about an inflation of honours that contributed to a period of civil war and revolution that led to the establishment of a stable parliamentary aristocracy of land and commerce that asserted control over the distribution of royal honours.
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Notes
- 1.
This was officially designated as ‘The Most Noble Order of the Garter’.
- 2.
Officially, ‘The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle’.
- 3.
The Scottish equivalent of a baron was designated as a Lord of Parliament, and the term ‘baron’ was used in Scotland to refer only to a manorial lord, who in England would be a knight or esquire.
- 4.
The title Knight of the Bath had been introduced as a temporary expedient, for one year, in 1661.
- 5.
Officially designated as ‘The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick’.
- 6.
Laslett described the estate as a ‘class’, but his discussion of its characteristics identifies it as a social estate in the terminology that I employ.
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Scott, J. (2024). Aristocratic Honours. In: Class and Social Honour. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45948-1_4
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