User:Dr Gangrene/Nobility of Luxembourg

By the 18th century, there were only about a dozen lords still able to produce evidence of descent from four noble grand-parents. The nobility around this time was a young and immigrated nobility. During the Ancien Régime, alongside the higher nobility, a petty nobility evolved, whose roots lay in the bourgeoisie and the peasantry, and who made a name for themselves as forgemasters, in industrial enterprises or judicial careers. Certain historians minimise the influence of the Luxembourgish nobility at the end of the Ancien Régime, while others see it as more nuanced, describing them as an "influential minority".

The absence of an upper bourgeoisie, due to the lack of urban centres and the poor development of industrial and commercial pursuits, allowed the nobility to preserve a predominant role in the Assembly of Estates. Supported by the Habsburgs' policies, the nobles possessed a majority of the land and revenue from the soil, and who monopolised much of the metal-working activity, the only profitable industrial activity.

At the same time, some of the nobility's weakness must be mentioned. They were numerically weak, due to the wars and epidemics of the 17th century, and demographic decline, but also due to the lack of posts granting access ot the nobility, and due to the Austrian authorities granting few noble titles by letters patent. Their geographical situation was unfavourable, as it isolated Luxembourg from the rest of the Low Countries, and prevented the Luxembourgish nobles from accessing high posts in the civil, military and ecclesiastical hierarchies. The poor quality of the soil meant that the nobility, essentially rurally-based, suffered from the poor natural conditions of the country, and from the parcelling up of the land, due to inheritance customs. There was also a lack of unity, due to prejudices between the older nobility and the "new" nobles, and also between the "Germans" and "Walloon" nobles. This led to quarrels and hostility within the community, which was isolated and practically extinct by the arrival of the French in 1795.

Nobility in the 18th century entailed a certain number of privileges and prohibitions. The privileges included an exemption from taxes until 1771.

if convicted of a crime, nobles were not allowed to be beaten, nor to be put in the stocks. There were also privileges which seem mostly symbolic: for example, they were allowed to carry swords and bear coats of arms, they enjoyed precedence to commoners in the Estates and when attending church; they were also allowed to use sledges in the snow. They also enjoyed a shortened period of studies at university, exclusive access to certain ecclesiastical posts, and privileged access to posts in the king's household.

In 1866, the prime minister Victor de Tornaco formed a government consisting entirely of members of the nobility. This was criticised in the press as a "government of the barons," unsuitable to rule the country.

In the second half of the 19th century, nobles made up 20% of all government ministers.