"Noblesse Oblige" – Nobility obliges
Denmark is the world's oldest kingdom with 1100+ years and Japan is the world's oldest empire with 2600+ years
Denmark is the world's oldest kingdom with 1100+ years and Japan is the world's oldest empire with 2600+ years. Both are today constitutional monarchies.
The nobility lost the privileges in 1849 in Denmark, where the Constitution stipulated that "everyone in the Legislation to the Nobility, Title and Rank attached to the Privilege is abolished". The nobility in Japan lost their privileges in 1947 after the Japanese lower and upper houses were forced to abolish themselves, and at the same time adopt the new constitution, written mainly by American military lawyers - in the name of democracy.
And although the number of nobles today is greater than ever, they do not have any special forms of power left. One can also easily be tempted to ask whether there is even room for a titular nobility in 2019.
In a modern society, where the public debate is filled daily with talk of equality and equal rights for everyone. But there was a time when the king could ennoble the people he liked and who had money and land. The king issued a letter of nobility and the selected thus had paper that they were a little nicer than others. They were special.
This is how Denmark got an upper class in the dawn of time. Nobles come from a family that was once rich and important. But today there are both nobles, counts and barons in Denmark who work as bricklayers, office assistants, lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, etc.
There have been more than 55 kings and queens of Denmark from Gorm the Old to Queen Margrethe on the 2nd, and 126 emperors of Japan from Jimmu Tenno to Naruhito on April 1, 2019.
There has always been a close connection between Denmark and Japan. In 1867-2017, 150 years of trade and diplomacy were celebrated - and 50 years of the founding of Shindenkan in Denmark .
Japan was until 2010 the world's second largest economy, has the world's fourth largest and most modern military consisting of professional people, and has been a high-tech pioneer country for more than 130 years.
Still, in the eyes of most Danes and Europeans, Japan is an exotic and advanced country, where sushi, ninjas, samurai, hot baths and high tech gadgets come from, and so as something new you can now go skiing.
The question is then, since all history, regardless of where in the world, always starts from a royal/imperial house and nobility; How can we better understand the Japanese nobility compared to the Danish and European ones? Are there similarities? Differences? How can we compare and better understand?
I will try to do that based on King Frederik the 9th; By the Grace of God King of Denmark, the Venders and Gothers, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsken, Lauenborg and Oldenborg.
Titles, history and Frederik the 9th.
By the Grace of God King of Denmark, the Venders and Gothers, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsken, Lauenborg and Oldenborg
With power also comes an obligation to be a fairly balanced role model in the face of often opposing interests. In an enlightened society with a free flow of information and communication, this is more of an art form and acting than really a role.
This meant that the nobility worldwide, in step with rebel movements and new political currents, lost their constitutional privileges, power and money, in step with emperors, kings and princes losing the same.
It was a big significant revolution, since there have always been emperors, kings, princes and their nobility, regardless of where in the world and on earth. This meant that the entire foundation in history from the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Japanese and Mongols to entire continents such as mainly Europe and Asia, after thousands of years of roughly the same social structure and structure, lost almost everything to democracy and the holistic progress of all plans. "With knowledge comes enlightenment and power".
It happened first in Europe. Only much later did the trip to Asia come.
Today, we generally have a three-part society structure; the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. Before, that power was gathered under one person: the emperor, the king or the prince, who, however, delegated this power regionally and locally to the nobility. When it rains on the priest, it drips on the clerk.
In Europe and Asia, this model was more consolidated, the larger and stronger the royal power. Therefore, all great kings always sought to gather a larger kingdom under themselves, either through conquests, alliances or agreements.
With conquests, the royal power was on more secure ground both in the short and long term in terms of loyalty. Alliances were attempted to be made more long-term with marriages and hostage exchanges. Agreements were more from project to project, and highly uncertain. So what do you think a royal power would prefer to bet on?
Many larger countries in Europe have been dispersed and later united – step by step. This applies to both England, Italy, Spain, France and Germany.
But after a collection it can also quickly go the opposite way. A good example is Denmark. Denmark has actually been a significant power factor in Europe over two periods.
The first time was in the Viking Age together with our Nordic Viking brethren:
Denmark was so successful in war and alliances that in 1219 when Dannebrog fell from the sky, and in 1389-1523, the Danish kingdom looked like this;
And then a series of bad decisions led to things starting to go completely wrong. We lost a war in Germany, then we got banked by the Swedes in 1659, we lost the navy in 1807 to the English, in 1815 we lost Norway to the Swedes and in 1864 Schleswig-Holstein to the German Emperor.
Success on the battlefield, and thus the size and economy of the kingdom, is of great importance in both parts of the world for the privileges and power of the nobility with or subject to the royal power.
In the nobility of the Viking Age, there were lords such as earls (counts) who were more or less subordinate to the king. Until approx. In 1671, the Nordic nobility, including the Danish, were largely untitled, but quite powerful vis-à-vis the king.
Therefore, the Danish nobility launched a "coup d'état" and appointed themselves absolute king (dictator) and in order to cast luster and loyalty over the new hereditary autocracy, the king created a new titled nobility, to which anyone with money in their pocket could be appointed, directly of the king. The old nobility was greatly angered by the king's coup. Since it meant that anyone who could establish a family house with either 1,000 or 2,500 barrels of hard grain, - and a very handsome payment to the king, could be appointed to the new hereditary high nobility titles. 16 noble ancestry, which had previously been the criterion, was replaced by "Titles for sale". Anyone could be appointed, which also included merchants, large farmers, foreign nobles and financiers. It was only a few of the old nobility who were appointed and there was great opposition with forged documents for many years. In the period 1671-1919, approx. 30 of each. Today there are approximately. 200 noble families left out of a total of 725, of which approx. 15 % are titled high nobility from 1671 onwards.
The new nobility of county barons and county counts stood above the old nobility, counts and barons. In Denmark, the title count and baron has always been a purely honorary titular title. The sons of a sheriff received the honorary title of count, just as the sons of a sheriff baron became honorary barons. Daughters were respectively honored countesses or baronesses. They were all nobles, but at the head of the family or clan was the one who was granted a fief, and was thus given the title of sheriff or sheriff. This structure was on the German and French scale. In England, a Duke, Marquis or Count (Earl) could use his father's other lower titles purely honorary.
But how did it look historically in Germany?
Frederik the 9th "By the Grace of God, King of Denmark, the Venders and Gothers, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsken, Lauenborg and Oldenborg". Denmark has always had a close association and kinship with Germany, both as our royal family has German ancestry and are German dukes. A very large part of the Danish nobility is of German origin.
But Germany is actually a fairly new federal tax. Germany as we know it today first arose in 1871 on the basis of the German Confederation from 1815. It is formed by approx. 41 different main principalities of various kinds, several of which have smaller principalities under them.
For a thousand years, Germany has consisted of hundreds of smaller or larger royal, duke, count or principalities, which, however, have had growing pains at the expense of each other throughout history.
The German Imperial Confederation in 1848?
- 65 ecclesiastical princely states, which accounted for 14 % of the country and 12 % of the population
- 45 county prince and county prince states, which accounted for 80 % of the country and 80 % of the population
- 60 smaller princely states, which accounted for 3 % of the country and 3 % of the population
- 60 Imperial cities, which accounted for 1 % of the land and 4 % of the population
- 500+ Imperial vassals who accounted for 2 % of the land and 1 % of the population
15th century
In 1648
How did it look historically in Japan?
- 261 county princes/Daimyo, who accounted for 62 % of the land and 58 % of the population
- Tokugawa Shogun & family, who accounted for 25 % of the land and 27 % of the population
- Tokugawa vassals/Daimyo vassals who accounted for 10 % of the land and 12 % of the population
- Shinto and Buddhist Temples, which accounted for 3 % of the land and 1 % of the population
- The Imperial House, which accounted for 0.1 % of the country and 0.1 % of the population.
- Yes, with the helicopter overview it is directly comparable, and thus the German aristocracy is not so different from the development of the Japanese aristocracy - if we disregard the cultural
