View source for Magnate

{{Short description|Person (usually a man) in a position of high wealth, power, or nobility}}
{{distinguish|Agnate}}
{{redirect|Magnat|a wealthy or powerful business baron or executive|Business magnate|other uses|Magnat (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Bacciarelli Jan Zamoyski.jpg|thumb|[[Jan Zamoyski]], an important 16th-century [[Polish people|Polish]] magnate]]

A '''magnate'''<ref>from the [[late Latin]] ''magnas'', a great man, itself from [[Latin]] ''magnus'', "great"</ref> is a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities in [[Western Christian]] countries since the medieval period. It also includes the members of the higher clergy, such as [[bishop]]s, [[archbishop]]s and [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]]s. In reference to the [[medieval]], the term is often used to distinguish higher territorial [[landowner]]s and [[warlord]]s, such as [[count]]s, [[earl]]s, [[duke]]s, and territorial-[[prince]]s from the [[baronage]]. In Poland the ''[[szlachta]]'' (nobles) constituted one of the largest proportions of the population (around 10-12%) and 'magnat' refers to the richest nobles, or nobles of the nobility - even though they had equal voting rights in Poland's electoral monarchy.

==England==
In [[Kingdom of England|England]], the magnate class went through a change in the later Middle Ages. It had previously consisted of all [[tenants-in-chief]] of the crown, a group of more than a hundred families. The emergence of [[English Parliament|Parliament]] led to the establishment of a parliamentary peerage that received personal summons, rarely more than sixty families.<ref name="ChrimesRoss1972">{{cite book|last=Pugh|first=T. B.|editor=S. B. Chrimes, C. D. Ross and R. A. Griffiths|title=Fifteenth-Century England, 1399–1509: Studies in Politics and Society|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7US8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA86|access-date=17 July 2013|year=1972|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=9780064911269|page=86|chapter=The magnates, knights and gentry}}</ref> A similar class in the [[Gaels|Gaelic]] world were the [[Flatha]]. In the Middle Ages, a [[bishop]] sometimes held territory as a magnate, collecting the revenue of the [[Manorialism|manors]] and the associated [[knight's fee|knights' fees]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

In the Tudor period, after [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] defeated [[Richard III of England|Richard III]] at [[Battle of Bosworth Field|Bosworth Field]], Henry made a point of executing or neutralising as many magnates as possible. Henry would make parliament [[attainder|attaint]] undesirable nobles and magnates, thereby stripping them of their wealth, protection from torture, and power. Henry also used the [[Court of the Star Chamber]] to have powerful nobles executed. [[Henry VIII]] continued this approach in his reign; he inherited a survivalistic mistrust of nobles from his father. Henry VIII ennobled very few men, and the ones he did were all "[[new men]]": ''[[novus homo|novi homines]]'', greatly indebted to him and with very limited power.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

== Poland and Lithuania ==
{{main|Magnates of Poland and Lithuania}}
{{further|Transportation and travel during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth}}
Magnates were a [[social class]] of wealthy and influential [[nobility]] in the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]] and [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], and later the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]].

==Similar terms elsewhere==
''[[Velikaš]]'' is the Serbo-Croatian word for 'magnate', derived from veliko ('great, large, grand'). It was used to refer to the highest nobility of Serbia in the Middle Ages and Croatia in the Middle Ages.

In Spain, since the late Middle Ages, the highest class of nobility hold the appellation of [[Grandee of Spain]] and was known earlier as [[ricohombre]]s.

In Sweden, the wealthiest medieval lords were known as ''storman'' (plural ''stormän''), "great men", a similar description and meaning as the English term magnate, see "[[Swedish nobility]]" for more.

==See also==
* [[Aristocracy]]
* [[Boyar]], in Eastern Europe
* [[Daimyo]], powerful landlords in feudal Japan
* [[Magnat (film)|''Magnat'' (film)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Magnate}}

{{wealth}}
[[Category:Social classes]]
[[Category:Dukes| ]]
[[Category:Noble titles]]
[[Category:British nobility]]
[[Category:Hungarian noble titles]]
[[Category:Bosnian magnates| ]]
[[Category:Spanish noble titles]]
[[Category:Swedish noble titles]]