Blue book

In the Frankish Empire there was no hereditary nobility. There was a form of aristocracy, consisting of landowners. The major authorities of the empire belonged to that group. In most princedoms the magistrates at the court were part of the class of ministerials. In the medieval feudal society they were a kind of serfs, having received lands from the church or their lord and having to perform services in return. Those in the military were counted as noblemen. In the 13th century they became part of the feudal nobility and urban aristocracy. 

When, from the 10th century onwards, royal authority was waning, higher magistrates and landowners managed to work themselves up to being rulers and lords. They became the higher nobility. Apart from that, as a result of feudalism, a lower nobility developed. In the struggle for power, the higher nobility needed soldiers and thus their vassals became small noblemen.

As the power of lieges and of the towns was increasing, political power, especially of the lower nobility, diminished from the 13th century onwards, while the main source of income, landownership, decreased as a result of changing economic conditions. The decentralization policy of the Burgundians resulted in the rise of a new nobility. The lower noblemen, having served the government as civil servants and having received many privileges in the process, formed this new group. They became the main body of support for the central authorities.

After the 16th century, nobility lost its social basis. Besides the economic situation, this was also caused by the extinction of noble families and the fact that during the Republic, no new noblemen were created. In that period a patriarchate developed, acquiring titles through the purchase of manors. In 1795 privileges were abolished.. Dutch nobility (and especially those in Holland) can be divided into an ante- a post-Republic variety.

The Van Schelven family name occurs in the Dutch Blue Book.
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