Petty nobility is dated at least back to 13th century and was formed by Nobles/Knights around their strategic interests. The idea was more capable peasants with leader roles in local community that were given tax exemption for taking care of services like for example guard duties of local primitive strongholds.
Cavalry service was not required from these petty noble families.
Later on many of these petty noble families gained full nobility ranking.
Finnish Vehkalahti is particularly noted in literature for as having been an example of such petty nobility (Finnish: knaappiaateli).
The Georgian aznauri in the later Middle Ages became defined as dependent nobles, as a result of stratification within the feudal aristocracy of Georgia.
Famous quotes containing the words petty and/or nobility:
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“And nobility will not be able to help you with your love; Love does not know how to cede to ancestral images.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)