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:
“Be petty at first, and a gentleman later.”
—Chinese proverb.
“If there be no nobility of descent in a nation, all the more indispensable is it that there should be nobility of ascent—a character in them that bear rule, so fine and high and pure, that as men come within the circle of its influence, they involuntarily pay homage to that which is the one pre-eminent distinction, the Royalty of Virtue.”
—Henry Codman Potter (1835–1908)