Serbian nobility (Serbian: великаши, племићи, velikaši, plemići, velikaš, plemić) was the privileged order or class of Serbia in the Middle Ages and Early Modern times.
The first nobles of greater status were those in the 9th and 10th century, who were connected to the royal family by marriage. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the nobility greatly expanded, and in the Serbian Empire lavish titles were given in the Byzantine order. With the fall of Serbia in the 15th century, Serbian nobility survived in Montenegro, and in the Austro-Hungarian lands. In the 19th century, with the independence from the Ottoman Empire, a new nobility based out of warriors and other wealthy intelligentsia emerged.
Read more about Serbian Nobility: Privileges, Duties, Forms, History, See Also
Famous quotes containing the word nobility:
“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)