Start My Family Tree Welcome to Geni, home of the world's largest family tree.
Join Geni to explore your genealogy and family history in the World's Largest Family Tree.

Admirable Personalities of Medieval Europe (0476 AD -1435 AD)

view all

Profiles

We are going to catalog here in this project the names of noble men and women who lived in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, establish their importance at the time they lived and their still reverberant value, mainly in politics and also, for their family relationships with all of us. I invite everyone to enjoy and participate in this Project.

The aristocracy, or nobility, of medieval times was made up precisely of individuals who owned land and some kind of influence or political power. The nobiliary title for each individual was granted by kings and feudal lords according to a hierarchy, which was schematically divided between high nobility and petty (or low nobility). In the high nobility were those few who held titles such as princes, archdukes, dukes, marquises and counts. The lower nobility, on the other hand, had a higher number of nobles, whose titles were viscounts, barons and knights.

Those who received the title of knight were generally characterized as specialists in weapons, that is, they stood out for being skilled with spears, swords, shields and dedicating themselves to activities such as war and hunting, which marked their way of life. life. In addition, the knights lived off the work of the peasants who were under their control in the lands that belonged to them. This guaranteed them the stability to dedicate themselves to military activity. In some cases, the knight's income also came from some suzerain, or lord, to whom he owed allegiance. For more details, consult these articles: Land Ownership in the Medieval World and Easement Relations in the Medieval World.

Victories in combat gave noble knights, in addition to prestige, awards and rewards that were received from their lords. The noble's morality was based exactly on fidelity to the lord through oath, which, if broken, was among the greatest offenses of the aristocratic class. Other characteristics of nobles were their pride and courage.