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Lower Nobility - Mittelfrei

Graf	Count
Freiherr	Baron
Bannerherr	Banneret
Ritter	Knight
Edler von	Nobleman of
Von	of

Midway between the old dynastic nobility and the simple freemen came those who had been raised out of the class of freemen into the class of the mittelfrei, as the The Lower 'Swabian Mirror' calls them. In the South of Germany they may be traced back to the time of the Frankish monarchy, but it was not till the fourteenth century that they were called noble and came to form a lower nobility (niedercr Adel) above the simple freemen.

The degrees of the lower nobility in Germany were, 1. the title Von; 2. Edler von; 3. Ritter; 4. Bannerherr ; 5. Freyherr; 6. Count. Their privileged were originally of little importance; but, in several countries, they were enlarged to a considerable extent by law. as well as by custom and practice. They enjoyed immunity from tuxes, and .in exclusive right to the highest public offices, especially in the army. German pedantry hugged the magical word von (of), prefixed to the names of titled persons as originally indicating the possessor of an estate or castle which formed the last name. The landed proprietors were in every country the natural nobility ; hence, in the opinion of the genealogist, those families who are named alike with their estates. The German families von und zu (of and at), as the von und zu Hardenberg, the von und zu Hahnstein, &c. were the noblest families in their respective provinces.

The chief elements in this class were:

• The freemen who were eligible to the office of assessor (die schoffenlar Freien), originally owners of larger estates (three hides and upwards), and chosen for assessors as the richer and more important of the freemen. In time the office, like all others, became hereditary, and they succeeded for a longer time than the mass of free peasants in keeping their estates free from burdens and subject to the jurisdiction of the counts instead of that of the bailiffs. Later on they were merged in the class of knights or of territorial lords.
• Vassals of the nobility; and after the rise of knighthood, knights with knight's fees.
• Later on, many knights without fees, most of them descendants of vassals, who had received a knight's education but also, as time went on, soldiers raised to knighthood by the emperor or his representatives.
• Numerous retainers (Miniaterialen, Edelknechte) often sprung from the servile or half-free class, and even in the thirteenth century sharply distinguished from men of knightly birth. These rose by their offices and service at the court, their large property and grand style of living: at first they had no feudal rights, but they gradually rose to the level of the knights, and were absorbed in their order.
• The noble families (die Geschlechter, Patrizier) in many cities of the Empire, more rarely in provincial cities (Landstadten), originally descended from the assessor class or from knights, and distinguished by their share in city government.

In the lower nobility, as well as the higher, the principle becomes of inheritance tended to supersede considerations of landed estate, of knightly life, or of court service, and hence arose a large number of nobles, who owned no other title to nobility but an old family-tree. At the same time their attitude and exciu- towards the freeman and peasant class became more exclusive at the very moment when the distinction between them was ceasing to have a real meaning. Thus the passion for grand titles was abundantly gratified. A large number of barons and even counts and princes issued from this order, getting their titles either by regular grant or by usurpation, but without any reality to correspond to them.

In Germany a nobility was never developed out of the civil and military offices to the same extent as in France. The learned nobility of the Doctores Juris were the only exception to the hereditary principle. On the other hand, Germany showed the greatest readiness in adopting the French form of nobility by letters patent.

The knights of the Empire, on their scattered domains, obtained a considerable degree of independence, but the lower nobility, as a whole, had no territorial sovereignty and no place in the Imperial Estates. On the other hand, they had a share in feudal law, and had certain special privileges in religious foundations and benefices. Some of them exercised the jurisdiction of bailiffs and territorial lords, which they inherited in connection with definite domains. Finally, they had the right to sit in the estates of their country (Landstandschaft), and formed the nobility of its court.

The power of this order rose to its highest after the sixteenth thirteenth century, and survived till the middle of the sixteenth, century. when it began to decline before the irresistible revolution in economical, military, social and official relations. The Thirty Years' War helped to complete its destruction.

In the Germany of the late 19th Century, the lower nobility, as a political institution, had become more completely disorganised than the imperial institution of the higher nobility. Many causes combined to undermine it: the feudal tie became weak, and States lost their feudal character and constitution, armies were revolutionised, the official class ceased to be hereditary, citizen families rose to high places, the old German Empire fell to pieces, and representative institutions were developed.

In Germany, as well as in France, the third estate would not tolerate the privileges of the nobility, and disputed its very existence. The unlimited extension of nobility to all descendants brought the claims of the nobility into glaring contrast with the facts on which they were founded, and the inconsistency was heightened, and the confusion increased, by comparison with the upper citizen class. If the inferior princes of the Empire could not resist the land-hunger of the princes of the 1815 Confederation of the Rhine, still less could the knights of the Empire. Their estates were incorporated in the territories of princes. The Confederation of 1815 tried to preserve a privileged position for their families, and to secure them autonomy, a seat in the provincial estates, rights of jurisdiction and patronage, forest privileges, and a privileged position in the courts. But this tinkering was ineffectual. To the modern conception of public law, patrimonial jurisdiction was as intolerable as freedom from taxation.

The merely titular nobility gradually become merged by marriage and occupation with the upper citizen class, both in social and political life. The German nobility of Knights did not have a patriotic and national history like the English aristocracy. A large part of the territorial nobility offered a long and stubborn resistance to modern ideas and reforms. Many of these nobles, in their romantic enthusiasm for mediaeval conditions, were readier to serve territorial absolutism than the freedom of the people. Hence the German nobility were not so popular as the English; like the French legitimist nobility, they were often regarded with distrust and hatred by the masses.

Speaking generally, the so-called lower nobility in Germany no longer had any special rights in law. As a political and imperial institution it had ceased to exist. What remnants of its old glory, besides its name and arms, it retained and exercised on occasion, had only an antiquarian interest. But still the territorial nobles, and in less degree the nobles of the court, though without landed property, occupied an important place in society, and indirectly exercised a considerable influence on policy and on official appointments. The appointments to the higher military posts, and to offices at court and in the diplomatic service, were mainly, though not necessarily, made from this class.