This week we talked about how we would respond if we were a student. I found the topic of the order of ranks very interesting. Back when Columbus was the big topic of discussion, there was a much different hierarchal order. We, in the United States, are not necessarily used to this ranking. I know there is a President and Vicde President and various positions under them, but even those begin to become less obvious. So I was interested in what the order of ranks was like back when the “new world” was being discovered. This is what I discovered:
Emporer/Empress
“An emperor is a male monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress is the female equivalent. As a title, “empress” may indicate the wife of an emperor or a woman who rules in her own right. Emperors and empresses are generally recognized to be above kings and queens in honour and rank.”
King/Queen
“A king is a head of state, who may or may not, depending on the style of government of a nation, exercise monarchal powers over a nation, usually called a kingdom or a realm. A king is the second highest sovereign title, only looking up to an emperor. The female equivalent of king is queen; although the term “queen” may refer to one ruling as a monarch in her own right, a queen regnant, or to the wife of a king, a queen consort. A queen who becomes the reigning monarch because the king has died, has become debilitated, or is a minor, is known as a queen regent.”
Archduke/Archduchess
“The title of Archduke (feminine: Archduchess) denotes a rank above Grand Duke and under King. It was rare and has uses too diverse to be given a fixed relative position within the former Holy Roman Empire to which it was restricted.”
Grand Duke/Grand Duchess
“The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not differentiate between princes who are children of a monarch and ruling princes.”
Duke/Duchess, Prince/Princess, Infante/Infanta
“A duke is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy. The title comes from the Latin Dux Bellorum, which had the sense of “military commander” and was employed by both the Germanic peoples themselves and by the Roman authors covering them to refer to their war leaders.”
“Prince, from French “Prince” (itself from the Latin root princeps), is a general term for a monarch, for a member of a monarchs’ or former monarch’s family, and is a hereditary title in some members of Europe’s highest nobility. The feminine equivalent is a princess.”
“Infante (masculine) or infanta (feminine), also anglicised as infant, was the title and rank given in the European kingdoms of Spain and Portugal to a son or daughter of the king, or to a grandson or granddaughter in the male line of a reigning monarch (and also to a princess’s children if she was the heir apparent to the throne). Female consorts of princes of the blood when married automatically gained the title Infanta, while male consorts did not have an inherent right to the title, style and rank of Infante upon marriage to a princess of the blood.”
Marquess/Marchioness,\Margrave/Margrivane
“A marquess or marquis is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European monarchies and some of their colonies. The term is also used to render equivalent oriental styles as in imperial China and Japan. In the British peerage it ranks below a duke and above an earl. In Europe it is usually equivalent where a cognate title exists. A woman with the rank of marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is a marchioness, or a marquise.”
“A Margrave was a medieval hereditary nobleman with military responsibilities in a border province of a kingdom. Border provinces usually had more exposure to military incursions from the outside, compared to interior provinces, and thus a margrave usually had larger and more active military forces than other lords. The margrave may also have had larger territorial area under his control as a result of expansions of territory at the border. In medieval times the margraves usually had more autonomy from the king compared to other types of hereditary lords, but by late medieval and early modern times, as borders grew less unsettled, the distinction between margraves and other hereditary lords gradually disappeared.”
Count/Countess, Earl/Countess
“A count is a nobleman in European countries; his wife is a countess. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning “companion”, and later “companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor”. The British equivalent is an earl (whose wife is also a “countess”, for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term).”
Viscount/Viscountess
“A viscount is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl (in Britain) or a count (the earl’s continental equivalent).”
Baron/Baroness
“Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin (liber) baro meaning “(free) man, (free) warrior”; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning “nobleman”.”
Baronet/Baronetess
“A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess, is the holder of a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown known as a baronetcy. The current practice of awarding baronetcies was originally introduced in England and Ireland by James I of England in 1611 in order to raise funds.”
Knight/Dame
“Dame is the female equivalent of address to Sir for a British knighthood. In the UK honours system, this can be the title of a woman who has been made a Dame Commander or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, or Order of the British Empire. Women who are appointed to the Order of the Garter or Order of the Thistle are not given the tile of “Dame” but “Lady”.
Because there is no female equivalent of a Knight Bachelor, women deserving an honour of this rank are appointed Dames of an Order of chivalry instead.
Formerly, the wife of a knight was given the title of Dame before her name, but this usage was replaced by “Lady” during the 17th century.”
This table helped he understand how different ranks and nobility played a role in formal society back when Columbus was exploring the New World. It seems like everyone knew the ranks and respected them. I think I would have a hard time doing so…there are so many to keep track of!
I found all my information from: Wikipedia: Ranks of Nobility
