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.
“I have come to the conclusion that the closer people are to what may be called the front lines of government ... the easier it is to see the immediate underbrush, the individual tree trunks of the moment, and to forget the nobility the usefulness and the wide extent of the forest itself.... They forget that politics after all is only an instrument through which to achieve Government.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)