A robber baron or robber knight was an unscrupulous and despotic noble of the medieval period in Europe. The term has slightly different meanings in different countries. In modern US parlance, the term is also used to describe unscrupulous industrialists (see robber baron (industrialist)). Robber baron behavior among the Germanic warrior class in medieval Europe indirectly led to the Catholic innovations of the Peace and Truce of God.
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Famous quotes containing the word baron:
“People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.”
—Kenneth MacKenzie Clark, Baron of Saltwood (1903–1983)