Nobility and Heraldry
As king, Christophe created an elaborate Haïtian peerage (nobility) of his own design, originally consisting of four Princes, eight Dukes, 22 Counts, 40 Barons, and 14 Knights ("chevaliers"). Christophe founded a College of Arms to provide armorial bearings for the newly ennobled.
Europeans mocked his creation, and there the term "Haitian nobility" became a synonym for any improvised aristocracy created by a new government.
Read more about this topic: Henri Christophe
Famous quotes containing the word nobility:
“The cloud was so dark that it needed all the bright lights that could be turned upon it. But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)