Chapter Three: A Comparison of Titles

The level at which a character is considered noble varies by kingdom. A knight is part of the nobility in much of France, but in England a lord needs to have a great deal more influence than a knight to be considered noble. In parts of Iberia, nobility is more functional and its lower reaches can be grasped by anyone playing the role of knight for this moment, in the employ of the king, regardless of his birth. Churchmen claim to be noble by virtue of their station, a claim taken more or less seriously depending on the power of the Church in the affairs of a kingdom. Although there are a multitude of titles for landed nobility, few have practical meaning to players.

The French (and English) System

This system is a remnant of the institutions that supported the Carolingian Empire, and is found in most areas once controlled by the Franks. It is also found in surrounding areas that have been invaded, like England, or are now ruled by people educated in a court that uses this system, like Scotland.

In the lists below, a term in English is given first, as it is assumed that most players will speak English in their games. This is followed by a Latin term, which magi might use for color. This is then followed by the French term, which is often similar to the English because the ruling class of England is comprised, in large part, of French-speaking Normans.

Squire (Armiger, Écuyer)

A squire is, strictly, a young person who attends upon a knight as part of his training, but it has evolved to have a second meaning. In many areas of Mythic Europe there are people who could be landed knights, and who do service like landed knights, but have chosen not to formally accept the higher status. The reason for this varies a little between kingdoms. In England it is because knights must pay a tax in exchange for their ascension. In Mythic Europe it is rare for these people to be called squires: each local version of this class has its own name, but for players this is the most convenient term.

A squire may take the Gentleman, Knight, or Landed Noble Virtues. Players should modify these virtues slightly to suit the style of character they wish to play.

Knight (Miles, Chevalier)

A knight is a professional mounted warrior. This role can theoretically be conveyed by any knight to anyone, but in many areas use of this right has become a crime, so that a knight exercising it must pay a fine to his overlord. This is because many overlords charge a fee in exchange for creating knights, and a knight who, for example, dubs his squire or son, must make good the revenue the lord has lost.

Bacheler Knight

Most lords have a personal guard of knights, called a mesnie in French, whose members are called bachelers ("bachelors"). Bacheler knights are vassals of their lord, but they are usually held in greater trust than other vassals. They are led by a senior knight called a carissimus. These knights are often supported with coin and kind rather than land. In other lands there are house knights with identical roles, although the terminology differs.

A bacheler knight has the Virtues Knight and Protection, and the Oath of Fealty Flaw or Free Choice. Poor bachelers are rare. Failure to provide for a household knight voids his Oath of Fealty, allowing him to seek other employment. An average bacheler has comfortable housing in his lord's hall, and is fed at his expense. The knight's equipment is provided and maintained by the lord. He is generally given coin as largesse. A Wealthy bacheler lives in opulence unexpected by those of his station, and is ransomed by his lord occasionally.

Some extremely wealthy knights use this title. They are bachelers because they are of the household of their lord, so they fulfill the role of his companions and bodyguards. Their lord, however, is so wealthy he provides manors for his bachelers, which they rent out or leave to the administration of stewards. These rich bachelers are Landed Nobles.

Knight Banneret

Most knights who lead sergeants and infantry into battle use a small flag to indicate their location. Knights who lead other knights into battle often use a larger flag, with a more-pointed shape. If the leader of such a force has no greater title, he is referred to as a banneret. A knight may claim this rank simply by arriving at a battle with a force of ten knights all clad in his livery and willing to kill as instructed.

In some areas, it is felt that the right to lead men in battle under your own banner is a reward that must be bestowed by a liege.

A Consideration of Virtues and Flaws

Oath of Fealty (Major Story Flaw)

In many areas, a lord holds his land from a superior, in exchange for a mix of services and payments. This is represented by the Oath of Fealty Flaw (ArM5, page 56). This is a Major Story Flaw. For most non-player characters and many PCs this suffices, but troupes may wish to modify this slightly for several reasons.
Some nobles hold land simply through descent from people who have held it since time immemorial. These lands are called allods. A holder of allodial land need not have an Oath of Fealty. These characters also tend to use titles that are grander than others of similar power and influence, although that is ignored for the purpose of Virtue selection.
Troupes are encouraged to permit knights who have taken oaths to a lord, but whose oaths lack consequences in play. These insignificant oaths are not treated as Flaws, so they cannot be balanced against Virtues. Troupes may choose to allow insignificant oaths because otherwise knights cannot begin with many of the Story Flaws that suit the chivalric genre, like Black Sheep, Dark Secret, Enemies, Higher Purpose, Heir, True Love, or Vow. Player character knights are more interesting if they can have a range of Story Flaws.

Knightly Demands (Major Story Flaw)

As an alternative to all of this tinkering with detail, troupes may simply state that all knights have a Major Story Flaw, called Knightly Demands, that allows the Storyguide to drag them into any plot related to the kind of things knights do in medieval ballads. This flaw works best for high fantasy, highly mobile sagas, because it includes quests, military service, romances, feuds, rescuing damosels, aiding kinfolk, and chasing monsters. This flaw replaces Oath of Fealty entirely.

Knight (Minor Virtue)

Some few women serve as knights in Mythic Europe. These women are discussed in greater depth at the end of Chapter Two: Politics.

Landed Noble (Major Virtue)

A lord of the manor is the least senior style of landed noble. In England about half of the male manorial lords are knights. The rest are termed "gentry" or "squires" and could be knighted if they wished, but prefer to avoid it since there is a tax attached to the office. A lord of the manor has the Virtue Landed Noble. Knight and Protection are common Virtues, but are not required.
In the Norman-influenced parts of Mythic Europe, Wealthy Landed Nobles are far more numerically common than either standard or Poor Landed Nobles. The average holding in England has five manors. In areas where the land of a father is divided equally between his sons, Poor Landed Nobles are far more common. The children of Wealthy Landed Nobles, or more-senior landowners, often have the Privileged Upbringing Virtue.
A Poor Landed Noble usually has no surplus income. He has little free time, as he must continually administer his lands. This may be because he has debts, because his land has not recovered from a disaster, or because his manors were never fertile. He has one season of free time per year.
A lord of the manor without Virtue or Flaw has a second manor, for which he owes knight service. This service is performed by a mercenary or waived for scutage (a fine discussed in Chapter Two: Politics). The lord may summon up to ten villeins to fight as infantry, which is doubled if the war is defensive. Each knight is also served by a squire who acts as a sergeant, a mounted combatant. This Virtue leaves the lord two seasons of free time per year, and ten pounds to spend on largesse, war, or other discretionary matters.
A typical Wealthy Landed Noble holds, on average, five manors and lives at the richest, or the one to which he has the greatest sentimental attachment. These lands provide the lord with the service of four knights, other than himself, 5 serjants, and 50 villeins. If fighting in the same county, the lord may double the number of villeins who are required to assist him. The lord may spend money to swell the ranks of his personal army, and usually pays scutage for himself or sends a knight in his stead. He has three seasons of free time per year, and 20 pounds per year to spend as he wishes. His additional income comes from fertile land, active assarting in previous generations, or perhaps the lack of a knight-service on one of his manors.

Great Noble (Two Major Virtues)

This Virtue is used to represent the resources of a character of the rank of greater baron or higher. It should be treated as:
Two Major Virtues for characters played in lieu of magi, as major protagonists in the plot.
A Major Virtue for characters who, regardless of their rank, remain essentially supporting characters to the magi.
Players should discuss their characters with their troupes before designing greater nobles. It requires extra effort and careful character design to integrate a player character that is a Great Noble into a saga. The interests of the Great Noble tend to draw the character away from stories focused on the covenant, unless he is the covenant's servant.

After a battle in which a knight acts as a banneret, his lord may award him the office by presenting him a banner. This allows a little largesse.

Lords are sometimes tempted to raise people with smaller followings to this style, to allow them to have precedence over other knights. To do this, they need to give their vassal sufficient land to maintain additional knights. This usually requires five or more manors, or rights of equivalent value. There is, therefore, little economic difference between a banneret and a Wealthy Landed Noble, although their status and spending patterns differ. Bannerets are always Knights and are generally Landed Nobles. Most have an Oath of Fealty to a liege and are under his Protection.

Baron (Baro, Baron)

This term initially referred to anyone holding land directly from the king, but by 1220 has degenerated so that many lesser lords refer to their own vassals as their barons. Although landed people are aware of their status as barons, they do not use this term as a title. Minor landholders have a variety of titles that are traditionally translated as “lord” in English. A character might be lord of the barony of Blackhill, but would not be called Baron of Blackhill. Technically, baron is not a title, so it is not inherited: the land of the barony is inherited and possession of the land makes its holders barons, even if they divide the territory up.

The barons of England informally differentiate themselves into greater and lesser barons. The greater barons are those who, in the opinion of other great landholders, matter in affairs of state. Lesser barons are designed as Landed Nobles, and are generally Wealthy.

A man is considered greater baron if he has at least some land held directly from the king and expenses of at least 400 pounds per year. This is roughly equivalent to holding 20 manors. He owes service for at least 20 knights, 20 serjants, and 200 infantry, but this is a bare minimum often exceeded. All barons have the Great Noble Virtue. Baronesses who hold land in their own right take the Great Noble Virtue, while those who hold the title by marriage take Gentlewoman. Most barons have the Protection Virtue and the Oath of Fealty Flaw, but this is dependent on the political climate of their realm.

Barons vary in wealth. A poor baron has no surplus money at all: he is likely in deep debt. An average baron has a surplus of 40 pounds per year that may be spent as he wishes. A Wealthy baron has 100 surplus pounds a year.

Earl or Count (Comes, Comte)

In England, earl is the basic title for a major landholder. The term “earl” comes from a Saxon word and is used instead of the title of count in England and Scotland. The term “earl” is also used in English for the lesser kings of the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, and for noblemen in Ireland and Wales, although they have legal powers far different from those of the earls of England.

A count or earl has the Great Noble Virtue, while a countess (which is the correct term for the wife of an earl, or a female earl) has Gentlewoman if she does not hold the land in her own right. A count has a yearly expenditure of at least 1000 pounds. The average count might be required to bring 50 knights to battle, along with their sergeants and 500 infantry. Large vassal armies are, however, worthless for sieges, because sieges usually last longer than the period of service required of vassals each year. Their muster is often commuted to cash payment, to allow the king or count to hire mercenaries. An average count has 100 pounds to spend on trivialities per year, and a wealthy one 250 pounds.

Viscount (vice-comes, viscomte)

A viscount was, initially, a deputy to a count. In 1220, the term viscomte is used in France for lesser counts. Its Latin form is used in England for sheriffs, who are officers of the king.

Count Palatine and Marcher Lord

A count palatine is a count who has been given extra powers to deal with a difficult border. In England there are several counties palatine: Durham, which is near the Scots border, and Chester, on the Welsh border, are both still points of strength. Ely and Kent were points of resistance after the Conquest, where local churchmen were given additional powers to subdue the population. This role is intertwined with the role of marcher lord.

The original marcher lords were placed as a buffer between England and Wales after the Conquest. They had greater authority: the right to do anything a king might do, such as build castles, levy taxes, make war, and found towns. Powerful marcher lordships were eventually elevated into earldoms, and some of their rights curbed, but the legal inheritors of Marcher lordships still have unusual rights compared with other counts. This title appears in France only in the title of the Count of Marche, whose ancestor had a similar role before the pacification of southern France.

Some marcher lords are effectively Wealthy counts. Their role is usually defensive so they have fewer knights in their retinue than other counts, but proportionally more infantry. This allows them to garrison impressive royal or private castles.

Duke (Dux, Duc)

This title initially meant war leader. It is used in France for the highest class of vassal, particularly in those areas that are culturally distinct. It is not used in Britain. Dukes control vast estates and, in some cases, are more powerful than the kings to whom they are nominally subservient.

All dukes have the Greater Noble Virtue, while duchesses are Greater Nobles if they have a right to rule their lands, or Gentlewomen if they have their rank by marriage. As a rough estimate, a duke has, at minimum, personal forces that include 75 knights, their sergeants, and 750 infantry. The duke is also likely to have vassals able to extend his forces. The most powerful earl in England (which has no dukes) spends 6,000 pounds a year and can muster armies of hundreds of mercenary and vassal knights.

King (Rex, Roi)

A king is defined in his role by the fact that he pays allegiance to no living man, except perhaps the pope or emperor. Kings were initially the war leaders elected to lead powerful tribal groups in wars against their neighbors. This process of electing the king led, in earlier times, to civil wars, as the group of possible claimants to the throne thinned each other out before the decision could be made. In the current generation, elective kingship will die out in most of Western Europe. The principle of hereditary kingship was forced on the English nobility in 1215, when William Marshal defeated the forces of Prince Louis of France, who had been offered the crown by the barons of England.

In France it has been traditional, for several generations, to force the electors to vote and acclaim the heir while the incumbent still lives. The electors, in theory, freely choose that the eldest son of the king will be the next king. The current king, Phillip Augustus, is the first in the current dynasty not to bother with this. He is able to do this in part because he has crushed so many of his vassals and taken their land into demesne that his heir will be the most significant landholder in his kingdom.

How Powerful is a King?

Strong kings are often the most significant secular landowners in their kingdoms. The King of England, for example, holds between 15 and 20% of the arable land in his realm as royal demesne. The king's officers do not, generally, hold their positions through hereditary right. The king's lands are, therefore, often better administered than those of his vassals. The king's average income from all sources, for the last five years, was 60,000 pounds a year, but the baronial rebellion caused a collapse of royal revenues for a brief period that affects this average. A king is technically a Great Noble and need not be a Knight, although virtually all are.
The household army of the King of England contains over 60 knights in a practical sense, and in a legal sense contains another 60 or so, plus their retainers. These additional knights serve the king's interest in areas remote from the court, by holding significant castles, commanding armies, and arranging the logistics of campaigns. The king's household army also contains sergeants, squires, crossbowmen, and infantry. This personal force is highly responsive to the king's whim, mustering when and where he commands, and not dispersing after 40 days of campaigning as his vassals do.
The king has 45 vassals who are greater barons. Each owes him at least 20 knights in service each year, most many more. For generations the kings of England have preferred to take a large portion of this service as scutage and hire mercenaries with it instead.

How Small is the Ruling Class of a Kingdom?

At the time of the signing of the Magna Carta, five years ago, there were only 197 lay baronies and 32 ecclesiastical baronies in England. Many barons hold more than one barony. Only 45 people were considered "greater barons," landholders significant enough that the king sent them personal invitations to attend court. This includes the earls, of whom there were no more than a dozen. These 45 men are all closely related to each other by blood and marriage.
The chivalric class is somewhat larger. There are between 5,000 and 6,000 knight's fees in England, although only about 1,500 of these are actually held by warrior knights, and another 1,500 are held by men who could become landed knights but have chosen not to for tax purposes. These squires have the Gentleman Social Status and Wealthy Virtues. Many other knights are found in the retinues of the king and nobles, but these are outside the landed class.

It is possible for a lesser noble to claim the title of king, but he effectively only becomes so when recognized as a king by some other significant power. This is usually the pope or, in the East, the emperor. The usual way of demonstrating the acceptance of this new status is the sending of royal regalia. In the West, kings are also anointed with the oil used to create bishops, although priests performing this ritual are careful to not anoint the head of a king as they would a bishop's.

The anointing of kings at coronation gives them several advantages. It clearly indicates they are senior to other nobles. In most dynasties, it also grants minor supernatural powers. Some kings can cure scrofula or leprosy by touching a person and spending a fatigue level. All kings have minor magic resistance as noted in Chapter Four: Interference.

The German System

The German system presented below is an abstraction. The empire is such an amalgam of local titles, historical peculiarities, and special cases that there is insufficient space to detail its complexity. At its core the German system, like the French system, is a descendant of the Frankish Empire. Its roles are similar in many cases, although the titles for various positions have been naturalized or replaced.

In the lists below, ranks are given their title in German, then Latin, then English. Note that the English form is just what a person of that status would be called in English. These titles are not found natively in English-speaking areas.

In the German system, there are three parallel sources of titles. Some titles come directly from the emperor, and these are marked with the prefix reichs-. Some titles come from the mists of history, for allodial land, and these are marked with the prefix frei-. Some come from local kings, and these have no particular prefix. Assume that an imperial knight has higher status than a free knight, who has higher status than a common knight.

Many of the senior German nobles are sometimes referred to with the title fürst. This means prince, in the sense of being the first member of a particular family. The senior English nobility are similarly sometimes referred to as the Princes of the Realm. Prince, in the sense of a person who is the child of a king, is the separate title prinz.

Herr (Generosus, Lord)

This title is used for any member of the nobility lacking a superior title. As such, it is used in much the same way lord is for the English gentry.

Freiherr

A freiherr is a nobleman with an allodial holding. It is sometimes translated as baron in English, and most freiherren are approximately equivalent in power to a minor count. An allod in the Holy Roman Empire can, however, vary in scale from the equivalent of a single manor up to territory similar in scope to a county. The title freiherr is, therefore, not really indicative of the power of the holder.

Ritter (Miles, Knight)

This is a general term for cavalry soldiers. The German ritter plays the same role as the French chevalier or the English knight.

Ministeriales (Ministers)

Some German knights are not free men. These knights are called ministeriales, and initially served militarily in exchange for their upkeep. Over time the role of ministeriales has broadened, so that some provide other services to a lord. The reichsministeriales, for example, assist many of the legal and administrative functions within the empire. Over time, families of the ministeriales are being absorbed into the hereditary class of knights.

Graf (Comes, Count/Earl)

The role of a graf is similar to the role of a count. The term is modified to create many related titles in the German system. These include examples like buggraf (burgrave), which means the keeper of a castle or fortified town, or landgraf, which is a graf with a larger area of administrative responsibility than usual. A burgrave ranks as a viscount, slightly below the graf. A landgraf ranks slightly above a count.

Markgraf (Marchio, Margrave)

This relatively rare title is a remnant of imperial expansion. A margrave was, initially, a count who has been granted fuller legal powers, in order to deal with a difficult border. This title is found in places like Brandenberg, Moravia, and Verona, which are held by the descendants of such margraves. Some of the other marches have become powerful, and so have shed this title. Styria and Austria, for example, were originally marches but are now duchies. Others have been dissolved into smaller units once they are settled, like the Breton March in France. The most-powerful margraves have the wealth and power of dukes, and in time swap one title for the other.

This title is not found in England, although the role is very similar to that of the counts palatine and marcher lords. It is similarly absent in France, although the County of Marche was once a march. Iberian nobles often believe they are descended from the nobility of the Spanish March founded by Constantine the Great. The family that rules both Barcelona and Provence claims that they are heirs of this ancient margraviate.

Herzog (Dux, Duke)

A herzog plays an almost identical role to a French duke. That is, at the time of foundation of his territory, the herzog's predecessor was the warlord responsible for an area that had some sort of separate ethnic identity from the people who conquered it. Outside the empire, many duchies have been broken into counties, or have risen to become small kingdoms. The title has persisted in parts of the Holy Roman Empire because herzogs have not been permitted to take the title of king.

König (Rex, King)

Within the Holy Roman Empire the kingdoms are usually monopolized by the emperor. The current emperor-elect has reworked this system a little to suit his political needs, so that at the end of 1220 his son is technically king of the Romans and the Germans, with himself as regent. He has also permitted the duke of Bohemia to take the title of king.

The current emperor is also king of Sicily, but this is not part of the empire, merely his personal possession. When he took the crown he promised the pope to separate the two roles by making his son king of Sicily and appointing a regent. Eventually he decided against this, preferring to keep his base of power in his own hands.

Römischer Kaiser (Romanorum Imperator, Roman Emperor)

There are no emperors in the classical Roman sense in Mythic Europe. Various kings call themselves "emperor of the Scots" or "emperor of Castile" but these fancies never last. In the West the title of Roman emperor is granted by the electors of the Holy Roman Empire. This work, and other Ars Magica books, uses the term "Holy Roman Empire" for this area, although that precise name does not occur in historical Europe until 1254.

The electors of the empire gather, and appoint a king of the Germans. The pope, in a highly technical sense, appoints this man the emperor, and might theoretically veto their choice. The pope anoints the king of the Germans as emperor of the Romans. When this happens, the emperor automatically becomes king of Burgundy and king of Italy.

The current Holy Roman Emperor elect is Frederick II. He has held the role in practice since 1215, but is anointed on 22 November 1220. His center of power is in Sicily, although he controls a great deal of territory and has many allies in German-speaking areas. His court is open to Muslim and Christian scholars alike, and is considered a marvel of the age. He is a cultured man, with some interest in magic, but spends much of his time feuding with fractious warlords or the pope.

Iberian Systems

During the Reconquista, the remnants of Christian Iberia extended their kingdoms across the lands held by Muslims. As territory was taken, it was settled with highly defensible towns. This created an unusual economic and demographic situation. The continual need for soldiery has lowered the barriers to entry into the knightly class, and the revenue of the nobility is centered not on the farming of agricultural estates, but on the taxing of towns that act as centers for the sale of livestock. Similarly, the royal army, when raiding outside of the kingdom, is a mixture of the king's own household and militias provided by his settlements.

The rights of each of these settlements are guaranteed by a fuero, a charter from the nobleman who founded it. Fueros vary markedly over time, imposing new obligations on towns as the needs of the founding noblemen change. The obligations of towns are to provide infantry, cavalry, money in lieu of either, and equipment. They also provide other sources of revenue to the king, like a fifth of all spoils from war or the right to control the exchange of prisoners.

The fueros also limit the power of the nobleman, in many cases. Towns are usually given an exemption from offensive mustering for a period of years after their settlement, but are required to perform services like providing castle garrisons and mustering against nearby invasion immediately. Some towns are not required to muster for offensive operations unless the king himself is present. Some may not muster more than once a year for offensive operations, and all contain maximum mustering times, varying from a single day to three months.

As a simplified version of this model, all people who own a house are expected to serve, unless they have an exemption due to a clause in the fuero. Exemptions occur for all kinds of reasons, like age, being a widow without sons, being newly wed, or supplying the gear for a knight. Those who fight on foot are referred to as peons, and those who fight on horse are called caballeros.

Infanzone

The meaning of this term varies markedly over time and place, but should be considered to be the lowest rank of the gentry. In some areas it is similar to the free peasants of France, while in others it is most similar to the gentry of England. They are considered petty nobles in the second case. The sons of caballeros, described below, sometimes remain infanzones until they capture booty on campaign, marry well, or their parents die, so that they can afford their gear.

Caballero

A caballero is a mounted warrior. He keeps his rank by maintaining his gear, and by taking the field when required. The fueros of towns list what gear is required to uphold caballero status. This varies a little but essentially a horse, breastplate, jerkin, javelins, and melee weapons are required. Swords are found rarely in fueros, perhaps because of their expense compared to axes and other popular choices. A caballero has social status and useful exemptions from some royal taxes, so the rank is a prized one.

The role of caballero is based on military function, so it is defended and encouraged by law. Suits of gear, for example, must be passed along intact. Dead horses and destroyed gear must be replaced within a certain time (varying between one month and three years). Men with a certain amount of property are required to buy and maintain horse, so that they can either become a caballero or send a surrogate on campaign. The tax exemptions and the title of caballero are sometimes given for exceptional non-cavalry service. In Portugal, for example a number of archers have this status.

Catalonia

The noble classes of all Christian Iberian states have some relationship to the Frankish rulers of the Spanish Marches. Despite the differences between their system and that of the Frankish or modern French, they see their knights as sharing the Carolingian heritage. This is most directly seen in the County of Barcelona. The rulers of Barcelona have such close historical links to southern France, particularly Provence, that Catalonian chivalry is better modeled by the French system.
In Catalonia the condes are served by viscondes, who are served by valvasores. A valvasore is a noble with a retinue of five knights, similar to a banneret. These three classes are considered noble and called barones, collectively. The vassals of these, with subinfeudated holdings, are the vasallos or cavallers. Cavallers are rulers of single castles. Their vassals are called sotcastlàs, who hold fiefs sufficient to support a one knight.
Despite this panoply of titles, the core of the Catalan army is the militias, which are similar to the levy in the English system. They differ in that they are usually based on the trade guilds of towns.

Players designing caballeros can either take the Knight Minor Social Status Virtue, or just use gear that belongs to the covenant. Caballeros are required to fight as dictated by local customs or the fuero of their town (which may be used as a Major Story Flaw, or ignored with troupe approval).

Caballero Villano

Within the general body of mounted warriors are further distinctions. A caballero villano is a knight who is closely tied to a particular town. To maintain this status and its useful tax exemptions, a caballero must live in a town and be ready to muster to its defense, or fulfill the campaign requirements of the local militia. Residency, in many areas, requires the caballero to not leave the town during the autumn or winter, so that he will be ready to campaign in the spring. It also requires that the caballero's wife and children live in the town, so that he will not flee when the frontier is breached by invaders. This style of Wealthy Knight is tied to the town by his Dependents rather than his honor, although troupes may permit players to select Knightly Duties instead.

Caballero Hidalgo (or Fidalgo)

An hidalgo is an ancestral caballero, often defined as one whose grandfathers were hidalgos. That is, he is a caballero whose family will support him in matters of honor. Lack of money is a matter of honor in Iberia, because a poor caballero can lose his status. Hidalgos are a little like the lords of the manor in the English system, in that they are considered qualitatively superior to the average knight, but they are not necessarily required to have grants of land. In some fueros it is assumed that the hidalgos will provide heavy cavalry and the villanos light cavalry, but this is not universal. Hidalgos have the Knight Virtue and either Gentleman or Landed Noble.

Ricohombre

The ricohombres, or great men, are the aristocratic upper class. They often claim descent from the Frankish Mark, or from the Visigothic kings. These great lords initially received offices from kings, called honores. These honors were rents from towns, or tracts of land in the agricultural hinterland of towns, that permit the ricohombre to maintain a noble lifestyle, including a personal army. Over time these honors have become hereditary in many places.

Ricohombres have varying powers, but most are required to provide two months of military service each year. They may not raise castles without the permission of the king. They are not permitted to perform certain lucrative activities that are royal monopolies, like salt-making. Ricohombres are sometimes called barones. Some go by the title of conde or barone, and they should be designed like English counts or barons. They have the Great Noble Virtue.

The Italian Model

In Italy the system of nobility is very simple. Those people who have a great deal of land are effectively contes (counts). Italian counts are, however, far less powerful than counts in other places for two reasons. First, all of the significant mainland towns, outside of the Papal States, are governed by a commune. This prevents nobles from drawing revenue from them. Second, all of the counties in Sicily are small and poor by foreign standards. The counts are served by barones, but this class includes landed knights, household knights, and unlanded gentry.

An unusual feature of the Italian nobility is that in many northern areas an additional rank, above squire but below knight, has been added. A patrizio, or patrician, is a member of the ruling elite of a town. The precise definition of the rank varies from place to place, so that in Venice, for example, it may designate that a person is descended from the founders of the city, as listed in the Golden Book, and therefore is able to sit on the Council.

Byzantine Models

The eastern Empire, before its division, had transformed from a centralized realm into a feudal state. Continual raids on the eastern frontiers of the empire led to the partition of the territory into themes, which were under the control of a strategos¸ or general, giving a system similar to the counties of the west.

Following the fall of Constantinople, the leaders of the various successor states took over the role of general in their controlled provinces. Such leaders are called despots by those who prefer a different candidate as emperor. The despot grants revenues from lands to particular supporters in exchange for military support. These rights are called pronia, but are modeled on western fiefs. The armies of the Byzantine successor states are highly dependent on mercenaries for their field effectiveness. In the Latin Empire the structure used is essentially the French one.

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