Estates (social groups)

thumb|286x286px|The House of Lords is the upper legislature of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom and is filled with members that are selected from the aristocracy (both hereditary titleholders and those ennobled only for their individual lives).]] Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristics associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non

thumb|La sortie du bourgeois, painted by Jean Béraud (1889) The bourgeoisie are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education, as well as their access to and control of cultural, social, and financial capital.

thumb|upright=1.15| Roman Catholic Church|Catholic clergy at the consecration of the [[Sacred Heart Cathedral, Sarajevo (1889). ]]

thumb|upright=1.5|Young women offer berries to visitors to their izba home, 1909. Those who had been serfs among the Russian peasantry were officially emancipated in 1861. Photograph by [[Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.]] A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants existed: non-free slaves, semi-free serfs, and free tenants. Peasants might hold title to land outright (fee simple), or by any of several forms

broad orders of social hierarchy

group in a society, a class

The Landstände (singular Landstand) or Landtage (singular Landtag) were the various territorial estates or diets in the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, as opposed to their respective territorial lords (the Landesherrn).

medieval, early modern European title of a citizen of a town, and a social class from which city officials could be drawn

coats of arms of non-nobles