Nobles of The Robe

Under the Old Regime, the Nobles of the Robe or Nobles of the Gown (French: Noblesse de robe) were French aristocrats who owed their rank to judicial or administrative posts — often bought outright for high sums. As a rule, these positions did not grant the holder with a title (count, duke, baron, etc.), but were honorary positions almost always attached to a specific office (judge, councilor, etc.). The office was often hereditary and by 1789, most Nobles of the Robe had inherited their position. They were the opposite of the "Nobles of the Sword" whose nobility was based on their families' traditional function as the military class, and whose titles were customarily attached to a fiefdom under the feudalist system. Together with the older nobility, Nobles of the Robe made up the Second Estate in pre-revolutionary France.