Chapter 16: CH 14.3

Translator : Nisarah    Editor: Nisarah

The next nobility rank is Marquis. They are nobles who have a town the size of several counties as their territory.

Marquis always stayed in the capital and only return to their territory a handful of times. They left governing their territory to several counts as their representative

Marquis only left the capital under special circumstances like diplomacy work with foreign countries.

Posts that held many of the kingdom’s internal secrets like the knight captain, Minister of Defense, or General of the kingdom’s army are always left to the marquis.

Marquis has one special right that nobles below them didn’t have. They have the right to possess a private army for each of their territories. They also have a large number of knights under their command.

One strange thing that I noticed about marquis in this kingdom is that they are often left in charge to protect the kingdom’s border despite mostly remaining in the capital.

Another privilege that only nobles ranked marquis and above have is the right to become the king’s in-law. This is because there’s a rule that requires the queen to be a lady at least from the marquis household. In reality, though, there are several ladies from a count’s household that managed to become a queen.

Other rights that only noble with marquis and above rank have is the right to create a territory law. They can create and enforce a special law that didn’t exist in the kingdom’s constitution.

There was this story about a certain marquis that created a law ‘all bandit shall be executed’ It caused all bandits to completely disappeared from his territory. It also caused trouble in surrounding territories since the bandits ended up running there.

If there’s any clash between the kingdom’s law and the marquis’s territory law then first both laws are investigated. Usually, the kingdom’s law ended up being the one that is enforced, but times when the territory’s law becomes the one that is enforced also existed.

I do think is a good policy. Because this way the territory lord will be able to swiftly solve problems that didn’t exist in the kingdom’s law.

After the marquis, next is the duke. The nobility system in this kingdom, follow the western nobility system which is a bit different from the Japanese nobility system that I know in term of the duke. In the Japanese nobility system, the rank ‘duke’ didn’t exist. There is only a ‘prince’

So the western nobility system duke and prince are both conveniently called just ‘prince’ in Japan. It’s confusing[1].

In the western nobility system, a prince is either someone who ruled a small country or the son of the reigning monarch. Including the Crown Prince. A simple definition of a prince is a man who had a connection with the current monarch’

While duke is a title given to a lord who is higher than marquis. Dukes often control large towns. Many nobles became dukes after amassing a massive amount of war achievements. the duke territories are often treated as autonomous areas, like a small country. Other than being a noble title given to a lord of a kingdom, some countries also have ‘duke’ as the title of its reigning monarch.

The reason why the title ‘duke’ didn’t exist in Japan is because of the difference between Japan’s imperial family system and the western’s.

Japan, Chinese, and other countries that embraced the Chinese-style nobility system had a large number of imperial/royal families since the reigning monarch have concubines. As such large territories that are typically given to a duke in western countries are given to one of the princes instead so the need to create a completely new title like duke didn’t exist.

On the other hand, the western nobility system is based on the system that existed in the European dark ages, the times when the church had a huge influence to the point that for a prince to be recognized as the next king it was more important to be recognized by the church rather than by his own parents.

In the bible, there is a famous line “Thou shall not commit adultery” That’s why the king of the western kingdom can’t have concubines. Officially, at least.

Without concubines, No matter how much the royal couples ‘work hard’ and even if the queen gave birth to one child every year, the number of royal family members won’t be too large, since the son of the concubine won’t be recognized as an official member of royalty.

That’s why large territories won’t always be governed by a prince, unlike in the Chinese nobility system, but rather by a subject that had amassed merit. In this case, a separation between that subject and a prince is needed and that’s how the title ‘duke’ is born.

Under the western system, some princes do become an heir to another kingdom because of their political marriage.

While some dukes ended up becoming a king because of the church declaration like ‘The God had recognized this person as the king!’

But in either of these situations, separating the title ‘duke’ from ‘prince’ itself won’t cause any problem.

From an outsider’s point of view, separating the title also make it easier to remember so it’s a win-win situation.

The situation is different in the Chinese nobility system. A king/emperor’s children is still a member of a royal/imperial family even if their mother is a concubine.

I mean the ancient Chinese emperor had at least 20 daughters and the man that married those daughters also had the qualification to be called a prince, so the actual number of the royal family is just staggering.

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Not to mention there were also some men who is conferred the title of prince because their sons married a princess. 

Under the Chinese-style nobility system, territories are often only kept around the member of the imperial/royal family so there’s no need for an additional title like duke.

To add to the confusion, this type of nobility system had a separate parameter to decide the right to a throne other than the title of prince.

For example in Japan, there is Prince Yamagata Aritomo[2]. He might be a prince but he didn’t have any claim to the Japanese Imperial throne. In the western nobility system, he’s a duke.

Fujiwara clan[3] in Heian Period[4]is also another great example. Despite being the clans of the princes and emperors’ wives, none of the members of the clan had any right to the imperial throne. This is because of the difference in treatment of maternal families in eastern culture and western culture.

In the Chinese style nobility system, a prince can also have a different amount of authority depending on who the current reigning emperor/king is. The same prince can have a different amount of power in a different era.

Due to differences between the western and Chinese-style nobility system, translating both prince and duke into just prince often causes confusion in Japan because no one knows which is which. More often than not, both are just careless clustered together.

Maybe the Meji Government[5] should have creates a different title to separate duke and prince in the past.

So they can give Yamahata Aritomo an equivalent ‘duke’ title instead of the straight-up ‘prince;

So to simplify things.

Western-style title: a Prince has direct blood relation to the royal family, while Duke hasn’t. Prince has the right to the throne.

Chinese-style title: Prince is a title that can be given to anyone who had the slightest bit of connection to the royal family. These Princes may or may not have the right to the throne

Those are really simplified explanations. Though these simple explanations can still cause some misinterpretation. 

The Bain Kingdom I’m currently in follows the western style nobility title that separated prince and duke.

The Crown Prince falls into the prince category while the current prime minister is a duke. That means the six nobility rank in this kingdom is prince, duke, marquis, count, viscount, and baron.

The ‘Weiss’ in the Crown Prince’s name signifies that he is the successor of the throne. Other royals, like the second princess Laura Louise Weinzierl didn’t have Weiss in their name. The Crown Prince can also be referred to as Prince Weiss.

He’s sort of ‘Archduke’ of this kingdom. Well, the Archduke in my previous world is a different though.

Anyway, I’ve spent quite a bit of time reviewing this world’s nobility system.

In short, by giving me the title ‘deputy count’ the king is telling me “You’re still a student but there’s no doubt that you are the next count so take care of the count’s military affair.”

Just how did things become like this?

♦

[1]In Japan, 公(prince, official rank of old japan nobility) is used to translate the word ‘duke’ and ‘prince’ to Japan. There’s no distinction. Ex. Prince of Monaco and Duke of Hamilton will both be called 公 in Japan.↵

[2] Former Prime Minister of Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamagata_Aritomo ↵

[3] In the Heian Period, the Fujiwara clan is the power behind the imperial court. With wives of the emperor and imperial princes, all come from the Fujiwara clan. Still, the member of the Fujiwara clan had no claim to the throne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwara_clan ↵

[4] The period in Japanese history from 794-1185 A.D is considered the peak Japanese Imperial Court.↵

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period#:~:text=The%20Heian%20period%20

[5] The era of Emperor Meiji marked Japan’s start of westernization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Meiji_Japan ↵

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