Magnate

The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities in Western Christian countries since the medieval period. It also includes the members of the higher clergy, such as bishops, archbishops and cardinals. In reference to the medieval, the term is often used to distinguish higher territorial landowners and warlords, such as counts, earls, dukes, and territorial-princes from the baronage. In Poland the ''szlachta'' (nobles) constituted one of the largest proportions of the population (around 10-12%) and 'magnat' refers to the richest nobles, or nobles of the nobility - even though they had equal voting rights in Poland's electoral monarchy.

England

In England, the magnate class went through a change in the later Middle Ages. It had previously consisted of all tenants-in-chief of the crown, a group of more than a hundred families. The emergence of Parliament led to the establishment of a parliamentary peerage that received personal summons, rarely more than sixty families. A similar class in the Gaelic world were the Flatha. In the Middle Ages, a bishop sometimes held territory as a magnate, collecting the revenue of the manors and the associated knights' fees.

In the Tudor period, after Henry VII defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field, Henry made a point of executing or neutralising as many magnates as possible. Henry would make parliament attaint undesirable nobles and magnates, thereby stripping them of their wealth, protection from torture, and power. Henry also used the Court of the Star Chamber to have powerful nobles executed. Henry VIII continued this approach in his reign; he inherited a survivalistic mistrust of nobles from his father. Henry VIII ennobled very few men, and the ones he did were all " new men": '' novi homines'', greatly indebted to him and with very limited power.

Poland and Lithuania

Magnates were a social class of wealthy and influential nobility in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Similar terms elsewhere

'' Velikaš'' is the Serbo-Croatian word for 'magnate', derived from veliko ('great, large, grand'). It was used to refer to the highest nobility of Serbia in the Middle Ages and Croatia in the Middle Ages.

In Spain, since the late Middle Ages, the highest class of nobility hold the appellation of Grandee of Spain and was known earlier as ricohombres.

In Sweden, the wealthiest medieval lords were known as ''storman'' (plural ''stormän''), "great men", a similar description and meaning as the English term magnate, see "Swedish nobility" for more.

See also

* Aristocracy
* Boyar, in Eastern Europe
* Daimyo, powerful landlords in feudal Japan
* ''Magnat'' (film)

References

Sources

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{{wealth
Social classes

Noble titles
British nobility
Hungarian noble titles

Spanish noble titles
Swedish noble titles