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Noble Dynasties

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Families, Status and Dynasties

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life ((PSFL))

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Abstract

Despite many differences, European nobilities were fundamentally similar to one another: employed in the service of the monarch, they held the highest offices in state governance, the army and court. The position of noblemen in the noble status hierarchy was determined by the office they occupied. Councillors represented the highest tier. Their marriages were highly endogamous, as was the case in the aristocracy more generally up to the nineteenth century, when marriages to non-nobles began to increase, initially in the lower nobility. Some noble families experienced social decline before the nobility as a whole went into decline. This gradual process saw them fall to tenant, crofter and farmhand positions. There were also bastardy-prone social enclaves in the nobility where partners were circulated and even marriages were contracted. Marriages to rich entrepreneurs’ daughters and learned professionals marked out the path for future changes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The family background of noble parvenus has been determined on the basis of a 50 per cent sample of noble families domiciled in Finland and ennobled before 1800 by Swedish monarchs (Wasastjerna 1879, 1880; Carpelan 1954, 1958, 1965). The lower nobility were without a noble title; the higher nobility consisted of counts and barons. No higher titles were granted in Sweden and Finland. Dukedom was reserved for members of the royal family.

  2. 2.

    Calculations of the occupations and marriages of the members of the five Swedish councillor dynasties are based on social genealogies drawn from Almanacs of the Swedish Nobility (Elgenstierna 1925, 363–69; Elgenstierna 1928, 545–71; Elgenstierna 1930, 582–608; Eelgenstierna 1931, 9–33; Elgenstierna 1932, 566–89).

  3. 3.

    Calculations are based on lists of senators (Selovuori and Parkkari 1995, 16–102). Senators’ nobility status has been checked from Almanacs of the Finnish Nobility (Wasastjerna 1879, 1880; Carpelan 1942, 1954, 1958, 1965). Each senator has been counted only once and for the year they were nominated to the Senate for the first time. The percentages are thus counted for new senators only, in contrast to Ylikangas (1996, 467), whose percentages at ten-year intervals include all senators in the Senate at each time.

  4. 4.

    See footnote 1.

  5. 5.

    Calculations are based on a 70 per cent sample of the higher nobility and a 10 per cent sample of the lower nobility still in existence in 1907 in Finland (Wasastjerna 1879, 1880; Carpelan 1954, 1958, 1965).

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  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Riitta Jallinoja

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Jallinoja, R. (2017). Noble Dynasties. In: Families, Status and Dynasties. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58073-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58073-3_3

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