Isn't there a difference between royalty and nobility?

Question

Maybe I was asleep during that lecture and didn't get the full details, but I thought there was.

Answer 1

The Royal family are above the nobility.  The nobility are the next tier down in society.  Nobles have hereditary titles, but they are not royalty.

Answer 2

In countries with royalty and nobility, royalty is at the top of the chain, so to speak. The upper classes in such countries would have been rewarded with titles for services or loyalty rendered to the monarch. They compose the nobility.

The definition can blur though... Some people consider royalty only to be those who hold the rank of King and up (emperor) and their families. Some people consider anyone who was sovereign to be royalty. Indeed, anyone who was a sovereign would not be mere nobility.

In places like Germany, mediatized families (those who once ruled directly under the Holy Roman Emperor, but had since had a lord (king, etc) placed between them and the emperor) fell in a grey zone between "royalty" and nobility.

Answer 3

Royalty is a royal family is the extended family of a monarch. Generally, the head of a royal family is a king or queen regnant. It is also considered proper in some circles to refer to the extended relations of a deposed monarch and his or her descendants as a royal family.

Nobility is a government-privileged title which may be either hereditary or for a lifetime. The term originally referred to those who were "known" or "notable" and was applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies. In the feudal system, the nobility were generally those who held a fief, often land and/or office, under vassalage, i.e., in exchange for allegiance and various, mainly military, services to the Monarch and at lower levels to another nobleman.

Answer 4

well, yes. The Royal Family of any country is the ones that can actually sit upon that countries throne in their own right as the nobility would have to marry into the royal family in order to rule but if their spouse dies they must step aside. Prime example that is rather recent. When Queen Elizabeth II's dad died, her mom Queen-Consort Elizabeth became the Queen Mother at that point as she could not rule Great Britain by herself as she was only part of the nobility (her daughter Queen Elizabeth II was royal by blood)

Answer 5

yes. royalty is someone who has direct blood or is intermarried in a family of power, like a king and queen and their descendants.

nobility, however, is not limited to royalty. it can be applied to someone like a pope or clergyman, who is not royal, but has very high importance.

Answer 6

Of course there is.  Royalty is the King/queen and princes/princesses, and includes any Dukes and Duchesses who are also prince and princesses.

Nobility is anyone with a title, so everyone from dukes on downward in the aristocracy.  Barons, Counts, Viscounts, lesser Dukes, Marquis and Lords.  I think that's all of them.

Answer 7

nobility deals with character..royalty is superficial.. unless the people make it "royalty" i.e. Michael Jackson "King" of pop..etc.  royalty of course is mainly associated with the bloodlines of those in monarchies or tribal type governments .. you certainly can be a noble person and be treated like royalty ..but being royal may produce no nobility see Henry VIII.. this is just of the top..hope it helps

Answer 8

The nobility,in the exact term means the non-royalpeerage.But these days,it's interchangeable and the meaning has been mixed up to include royals and peerage.