Nobility letter
The nobility letter (aristocratic diploma) is the document that was given to a newly ennobled as proof of his or her higher status ( ennoblement ). One therefore also speaks of the letter nobility .
history
The first nobility letters were issued by Emperor Charles IV. The oldest known nobility letter was given to a clergyman, the scholaster at St. Stephen's Church in Mainz , Wicker Frosch , on September 30, 1360 .
In the course of time, in addition to the emperor, some of the territorial princes received the right to ennoble such as the archdukes of Austria (from 1453 after the legal recognition of the falsified privilege Maius ), the electors of Bavaria , the Palatinate and Saxony as imperial vicars in times of interregnum , the Archbishop of Salzburg and finally the kings in Prussia (from 1702), whose territories largely did not belong to the Holy Roman Empire .
Since 1806 the princes of the German states of the Rhine Confederation and after 1815 all German federal princes have been able to carry out class surveys. This was also true after the establishment of the German Empire on January 18, 1871, the emperor could only award titles of nobility as King of Prussia. Letters of nobility were and are still awarded in other European monarchies.
Since the abolition of the monarchy in Germany and Austria, no nobility letters have been issued here. The last took place in Germany ennoblement took Prince Leopold IV. Of cold on November 12, 1918 the day of his resignation as a result of the November Revolution , before, when he Kurt von Kleefeld , the chief representative of the German industrialist Christian Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen on its request, raised to the nobility.
shape
The nobility diplomas in German-speaking countries were often written in Fraktur on parchment , signed by the sovereign himself, and the seal kept in a metal capsule was attached to them in the old way . The nobility letter form used in the various princely chancelleries of the German Empire and Austria in the 19th century was essentially the same as that used under the emperors Sigismund and Friedrich III. was in use.
Web links
- Diploma Nobilitatis Andrea Falquet at Wikisource (nobility diploma of André Falquet )