Introduction

Abstract Chapter 1 defines the term ‘aristocracy’. It functioned in a militarized society where property was accompanied by physical power, the decline of public institutions, the rise of seigniorial power, and the prominence of vertical social relations. Aristocracy denotes a way of life and a sense of social superiority. Aristocracy is an historian’s construct, and there is a tension between the terms ‘aristocracy’ and ‘nobility’, the latter being a term of medieval usage. In this work ‘aristocracy’ is deployed to include all levels of the secular elite, while the use of ‘nobility’ is reserved until its crystallization in the late twelfth century. The word ‘aristocracy’ can be modified to describe levels within the elite and qualified according to social level, function or lifestyle, time and place, or origins. One can speak, therefore, of an urban aristocracy as well as a rural one.