A military dictionary

by William Duane

Among the Romans, those persons were called nobles who preserved the statues of their ancestors in their courts or cabinets. The faces of these statues were painted to resemble life. But it was necessary to be descended from the ancient magistrates, called curules, to be entitled to have these statues. They were exhibited to the public on festival days, and when any of the family died, they were carried in solemn procession before the corpse: so that under these circumstances, an individual might be a patrician without being actually of noble blood or extraction.

That person was called noble in France, who first received a letter patent constituting him such, and who thus gave rise to the nobility of his descendants. Those born of him bore the title of gentilhomme, or gentleman, Un ancien gentilhomme, or gentleman of some standing, was stiled homme de condition, or a person of condition. Those gentlemen who were descended from illustrious houses were called, men of quality, gens de qualité.

In England those only are called nobles or noblemen, who have the title of duke, marquis, earl, viscount, lord or baron; which titles either descend to individuals from family-right, are gratuitously conferred upon them by the prince, (who is called the fountain of honor) or are obtained by the price of gold. The hereditary tenure becomes equally solid in all these instances, though not equally estimable, unless the title be itself ennobled by some great and good actions of the possessor. By those, and those only, can a purchased title be converted into sterling gold from base metal.

NOBLESSE. See [Nobility].

Noblesse militaire, Fr. Military nobility. Although most of the orders may be considered as appendages which confer a species of military nobility, especially that of the British garter, which was instituted by king Edward III. on the 19th of January, 1344, yet the British cannot be strictly said to have among them, that species of military nobility or distinction that was peculiarly known in France, &c. under the immediate title of noblesse militaire. In order to reward military merit, an edict was issued by the French court at Fontainbleau, in November 1750, and enregistered on the 25th of the same month by the parliament of Paris, whereby a noblesse militaire, or military nobility, was created; the acquisition of which depended wholly upon martial character, but did not require any letter patent for the purpose of ennobling the individual.

By the first article of this perpetual and irrevocable edict, as it was then stated, it was decreed, that no person, serving in the capacity and quality of officer in any of the king’s troops, should be liable to the land or poll tax, so long as he continued in that situation. 2dly. That by virtue of this edict, and from the date thereof, all general officers, not being otherwise ennobled, but being actually and bonâ fide in the service, should be considered as noble, and remain so, together with their children born, or to be born in lawful wedlock. 3dly. That in future the rank of general officer should of itself be sufficient to confer the full right of nobility upon all those who should arrive at that degree of military promotion; and that their heirs and successors, as well as their children, actually born and lawfully begotten, should be entitled to the same distinction; and that all general officers should enjoy all the rights and privileges of nobility from the date of their commissions. In articles IV. V. VI. and VII. it was specifically provided upon what conditions those officers, who were not noble, and were inferior in rank to that of maréchal de camp, but who had been created chevaliers or knights of the royal and military order of St. Louis, and who should retire from the service after having been in the army during thirty years without intermission, were to be exempted from the payment of the land or poll tax, and how the same privileges was to be transferred to their sons, provided they were in the service. By the eighth article it was enacted, that those officers who had risen to the rank of captain and were chevaliers or knights of the order of St. Louis, but who were disabled by wound, or diseases contracted in the service, should not be obliged to fill up the period of thirty years as prescribed in the recited articles. By article IX. it was provided, that when any officer, not under the rank of captain, died in the actual exercise of the functions, or bearing the commission of captain, the services he had already rendered should be of use to his sons, lawfully begotten, who were either in the service or were intended for it.

It was specified in articles X. and XI. that every officer, born in wedlock, whose father and grandfather had been exempted from the land or poll tax, should be noble, in his own right, provided he got created a chevalier or knight of St. Louis, had served the prescribed period, or was entitled to the exemption mentioned in article VIII. that if he should die in the service, he would be considered as having acquired the rank of nobility, and that the title so obtained should descend, as matter of right, to the children, lawfully begotten, of such officers as had acquired it. It further specified, that even those who should have been born previous to their father’s being ennobled, were entitled to the same privilege.

Article XII. pointed out the method by which proofs of military nobility were to be exhibited in conformity to the then existing edict.

Article XIII. and XIV. provided for those officers, who were actually in the service at the promulgation of the edict, in proportion as the prescribed periods were filled up. This provision related wholly to the personal service of officers; as no proof was acknowleged or received, relative to services done by their fathers or grandfathers, who might have retired from the army, or have died prior to the publication of the edict.

The XVth, or last article, was a sort of register, in which were preserved the different titles that enabled individuals to lay claim to military nobility.