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French aristocrats, c. 1774

Nobility was the highest social class in pre-modern societies. In the feudal system (in Europe and elsewhere), the noble were mostly those who got land from the monarch and had to provide services to him, mainly military service. Men of this class were called noblemen. It soon became a hereditary class, sometimes with a right to bear a hereditary title and to have financial and other privileges in the estates of the realm.