Aristocracy in New Tarajan

It is no coincidence that the full titulature of the Kingdom of New Tarajan is **Federal Aristocratic Kingdom**. Since the very beginning of the Antanaresian invasions that marked the birth of Tarajani history, the leading role has always been played by the powerful aristocratic houses of nobles and knights who actively pursued the conquest of the former Ajanic Empire (and, in the East, who were somehow linked with the Sinaic Order and its endeavours).

## Landed aristocracy

The first leaders of the conquest (such as Gustav Van der Grudeln or Sigismund Van Vinkel) were all members of Antanaresian noble houses, and they brought with them their own concept of relationship and status. However, the situation was quick to evolve, and to adapt to the new situation and environment: the chance of conquering vast territories and to establish independent lordships outside any higher sphere of authority soon led to a double-sided process: on one end, many knights, exploiting their own prowess as warriors, acquired lands and, thus, a new status; on the other end, conversely, they were able to attract other knights on their side, forming retinues which soon evolved, thanks to marriage and political alliances, to extended households. The consequent interaction and intermingling between these households (or clans) soon led to the birth of truly powerful landed principalities.

After less than a century, the process was already so advanced as to crystallize into a hierarchy of power, physically represented by the assembly of all those Houses which could claim exlclusive entitlement to a landed lordship and authority on the other knights living there (now vassals), the Landsraad. Instead of depriving the landed aristocracy of its power, the birth of the monarchy in 1595 further contributed in institutionalizing the new order, as confirmed during the subsequent centuries, when it was extended, in some way or the other, on all those neighbouring lands which accepted the sovereignty of the Tarajani Crown. After the promulgation of the Second Capitulum Pacis by Sigismund VI, the core concepts of Tarajani aristocratic power were finally estabished, including, among the most fundamental ones, that of immediacy and mediation.

From that moment onward, the whole political system of landed principalities and the division between Major and Minor Houses, was kept substantially static under the high protection of the Crown (that, in exchange, received from the Houses its own legitimacy to rule), and even after the two revolutions which engulfed the Kingdom (in 1789 and 1914 respectively) it was reinstated without substantial changes.

### Role & powers of the landed aristocracy

The landed aristocracy, as expressed in both the Major and Minor Houses, can be considered the true backbone of the Kingdom of New Tarajan. The Major Houses, in particular are the ones upon which the proper functioning of the Tarajani federal system rests; while Major Houses mainly exercise their strong political power via their presence in the Landsraad, members of the Minor Houses often receive very important roles inside the federal government and the armed forces: as a matter of fact, since the king renounced to the role of Grand Pensionary in 2010, all the six Grand Pensionaries belonged to a Minor House.

## Service aristocracy

Already in the decades immediately before the birth of the monarchy it was becoming clear to many that the time of rapid acquisition of social status and ascension into the ranks of the most powerful landed nobles of the Landsraad was quickly coming to an end. Many knights (but also people of lesser status) thus found it to be more profitable to put themselves at the service of one or the other of the most powerful Houses, as warriors, advisors, administrators. This process was further enhanced when House Van Vinkel's efforts to establish a stronger, more centralized, monarchy showed the need for persons not linked to the other Major Houses. The kings of Tarajan soon recognized that one of the best ways of gaining and keeping the loyalty of their new civil servants was to bestow upon them noble titles. This marked the birth of the so-called 'service aristocracy' (sometimes also labelled as 'pen aristocracy'). While for centuries the right of bestowing new titles was substantially spread among all the Major Houses, after 1810 the Landsraad accepted to limit such a prerogative to the king only.

The reason for this decision was to be found in the increasing hostility the proliferation of these 'new' nobles was meeting among the ranks of the landed aristocracy. Since the very beginning, landed aristocrats (the Lords) belonging to both Major and Minor Houses were staunchly opposed to the possibility, for service aristocrats, to be in some way put on their same level (and thus, for example, very rarely they received a lordship on their own); the fact that most of the service aristocrats had sided with De Ruyter during the Liberal Revolution showed the results of the exacerbation of such a century-long opposition. With De Ruyter defeated, the service aristocracy was now looked with suspicion even by the kings themselves, who preferred to rely on the traditional alliance with the landed aristocracy. As a result, since 1810 the number of new titles bestowed by the kings fell drastically, while the old service aristocrats were slowly assimilated into the landed aristocracy by marriages into Minor Houses and the concession of vacant lordships. After 1944, King Conrad III temporarily reprised a policy of bestowing titles, as a way of rewarding those non-aristocrats that contributed to the final restoration of the monarchy, but the process stopped again, definitely, after 1955. The last title bestowed by a Tarajani king to a person of non-noble descent traces to 1973. As for now, accession to the ranks of Tarajani aristocracy is basically impossible.