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{{Short description|German noble social class; ancient nobility}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Eberstein-Familien-Zeitung Nr10 1900.pdf|thumb|Facsimile of a German periodical of 1900 titled ''Mittheilungen an die Mitglieder des Geschlechtsverbandes des zum fränkischen Uradel gehörigen Geschlechtes Derer von Eberstein stammend vom "Eberstein" auf der Rhön''.]]
'''{{lang|de|Uradel}}''' ({{IPA|de|ʔuːɐ̯ˈʔaːdl̩|lang}}, [[German language|German]]: "ancient nobility";{{sfn|Godsey|2004|p=58}} adjective {{lang|de|uradelig}} or {{lang|de|uradlig}}) is a genealogical term introduced in late 18th-century Germany to distinguish those families whose noble rank can be traced to the 14th century or earlier.<ref>Grimm, ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'', citing Eichhorn, ''Einleitung in d. d. Privatrecht'' (1827) for an early attestation of the term, and ''Brockhaus'' 1 (1928) for the definition ''alle urkundlich vor 1350 als adlig nachweisbaren geschlechter''. See also [[Duden]]; Meaning of Uradel, in German. [http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Uradel]</ref> The word stands opposed to ''[[Briefadel]]'', a term used for titles of nobility created in the [[early modern period]] or [[modern history]] by [[letters patent]]. Since the earliest known such letters were issued in the 14th century, those [[knight]]ly families in northern European [[nobility]] whose noble rank predates these are designated {{lang|de|Uradel}}.<ref name="WDG">{{cite book |author=William D. Godsey |title=Nobles and Nation in Central Europe: Free Imperial Knights in the Age of Revolution, 1750–1850 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bh0Syp1dEewC&pg=PA58 |date=18 November 2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-45609-8 |pages=57–59 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511496752.004}}</ref>

{{lang|de|Uradel}} and {{lang|de|Briefadel}} families are generally further divided into categories with their ranks of titles: ''adlig'' (untitled [[nobility]]), ''[[freiherr]]lich'' ([[baron]]ial), ''[[Graf|gräflich]]'' ([[count|comital]]), ''[[fürst]]lich'' ([[prince]]ly) and ''[[herzog]]lich'' ([[duke|ducal]]) houses. The latter two are also referred to as ''[[Hochadel]]'' (High Nobility).

==Introduction and usage==
The first use of the word {{lang|de|Uradel}} to designate the oldest nobility dates from 1788, and it had assumed its present-day meaning by no later than 1800.<ref name="WDG" /><ref>[[Jacob Grimm]], ''[[Deutsches Wörterbuch]]'' ''erst im 19. jh. gebraucht zur bezeichnung ältesten adels.''("in use only from the 19th c. for the designation of older nobility"), citing [[Karl Friedrich Eichhorn|Eichhorn]] (1821, 1827).</ref> The term {{lang|de|Uradel}} was used officially from the 19th century by the Royal [[Prussia]]n [[Herald]] Office ({{lang|de|königlich-preußische Heroldsamt}}).<ref name="RGC">{{Cite journal |first=Rudolf von |last=Granichstätten-Czerva |title=Altösterreichisches Adels- und Wappenrecht |journal=Adler. Zeitschrift für Genealogie und Heraldik |number=4 |year=1947 |volume=1 |language=German |pages=49–58}}</ref> The term is found in the ''[[Almanach de Gotha]]'' from 1907, in which it is applied to all persons and families known to have been "noble" or "knightly" before 1400. The subsequent German-language publications {{lang|de|[[Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels]]}} (GHdA) and since 2015 the ''Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch'' continue to differentiate between {{lang|de|Uradel}} and {{lang|de|Briefadel}} families.

==Contemporary use==

===Germany===
According to the German genealogical [[reference work]] of the nobility ({{lang|de|Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels}}, 1951) the noble houses which count as {{lang|de|Uradel}} are those families whose ancestral lineage can be demonstrated to date at least as far back as the year 1400 (in the [[Late Middle Ages]]), belonging at that time to the [[knight]]ly (German ''ritterbürtigen'') nobility.

The latter includes ''[[edelfrei]]e'' families (free noblemen) as well as ''[[ministeriales]]'', a lower and in their origins mostly unfree order which arose rapidly and managed within the 14th century to elevate themselves to the lesser nobility ''(see: [[Estates of the realm]])''. The modern concept of aristocracy ({{lang|de|Uradel}}) must not be confused with the term ''edelfrei'', since the former term's scope is much broader:  all families that can prove they belonged to the knightly aristocracy by no later than around 1400 (whether originally ''edelfrei'' or ''ministeriales'') are counted today as {{lang|de|Uradel}}. In fact, most of the families in the former {{lang|de|Uradel}} volumes of the ''Gotha'' are of ministerialis origin, including even some of the later princely houses ("Hochadel", ''see below'').

''[[Edelfrei]]'' families were members of an ancient, dynastic aristocratic line, free noble families independent of legal obligations of a secondary nature, and they were not subordinated to any other families or dynasties, apart from the German King or [[Holy Roman Emperor]].<ref name="Bosl">Karl Bosl: ''Die Gesellschaft in der Geschichte des Mittelalters.'' 4. Auflage. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1987, {{ISBN|3-525-33389-7}}, p. 56.</ref> In contrast, the ''ministeriales'', meaning originally "servitors" or "agents", were ''unfree nobles'', however trained knights who made up a large majority of what could be described as the German knighthood during that time. These people were raised up from [[serf]]dom to be placed in positions of power and responsibility in the service of lords, counts or bishops. From about 1200 they gradually accumulated power and fiefs, at some point more than the Edelfrei knights. Poorer Edelfrei knights passed into ministerialis service, primarily to be granted new administrative positions and fiefs. The powerful overlords, mostly edelfrei themselves, had no interest in raising any competition to their power by sharing it with their peers, rather attempting to subject these by making them their vassals. In the 14th century, the edelfrei and ministerialis classes finally mixed and intermarried. Those ministeriales who directly served the German king or emperor (the "ministeriales of the Empire" or ''Reichsministerialen'') often accumulated large imperial fiefs, later sometimes enabling them to rise to comital or princely rank.

''[[Ministeriales]]'' mostly rose by elevation to the [[knight]]ly status. Knightings were usually granted to [[squires]] having bravely fought as armored horsemen in a battle, yet sometimes also to simple [[Man-at-arms|men-at-arms]]. A ministeriales family however was considered a "knightly family" only after three subsequent generations of knights (or at least of leading a "knightly way of life", including equal marriage). Since it is a coincidence from what period of time documents have been received or not, the initially more strict definition, as described in ''[[Der Große Brockhaus]]'' in 1928 (vol. 1, s.v. "Adel"), which required an attestation prior to the year 1350 to establish {{lang|de|Uradel}} status, has been extended to the year 1400 because even the knightly families documented as dating from the [[Late Middle Ages]] (between about 1350 and 1400) are likely to have had already at least a century of possessing that status. Many have in fact risen to noble or knightly status already before 1300.

{{lang|de|Uradel}} is also closely connected with the system of medieval [[fief]]s, granted by an [[Lord|overlord]] to a [[vassal]] who held it in fealty (or "in fee") in return for a form of [[Feudalism|feudal]] allegiance and service, usually given by the personal ceremonies of [[Homage (medieval)|homage]] and [[fealty]]. Therefore feudal deeds are an important source not only for the existence of noble families, but also for their rank and status. Witness lists, for instance, mostly enumerate edelfreie witnesses first, followed by ministeriales witnesses, mostly denoted as ''eques'' (knight) or something similar.

In contrast, the younger ''[[Briefadel]]'' are families of the post-medieval nobility, probably originally of bourgeois (''[[:wiktionary:Bürger|Bürger]]'', ''[[:wiktionary:burgher|burgher]]'') or [[peasant]] origin, ennobled in the [[modern history|modern era]] by [[letters patent]] issued by a [[monarch]], usually with the award of a [[coat of arms]] if they did not already have one. Said to have been modelled on the earlier French practice of raising officials (especially lawyers) to the [[aristocracy]], the earliest ''letters patent'' conferring nobility in Germany were issued under [[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor]], in the late 14th century.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Ursula Siems |author2=Kurt Kluxen |author2-link=Kurt Kluxen |chapter=Politik, Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft von 800 bis 1776 |editor1=Tenbrock |editor2=Kluxen |editor3=Grütter |title=Von Zeiten und Menschen |volume=2 |location=Paderborn |year=1979 |pages=39–41}}</ref>

===Austria===
A similar term used more often than {{lang|de|Uradel}} in Austria is {{lang|de|alter Adel}} ("old nobility").<ref name="RGC" />

===Scandinavia===
The term {{lang|de|Uradel}} can be found in Scandinavian genealogy from the early 20th century. The contrasting term {{lang|de|Briefadel}} was [[calque]]d as ''brevadel''.<ref>''[[Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon]]'' (1915: [https://runeberg.org/salmonsen/2/1/0185.html 169])</ref>

The 1926 edition of the Swedish ''[[Nordisk familjebok]]'' also cites 1350 as the required date, because "the oldest known letter patent dates to 1360".<ref>''[[Nordisk familjebok]]'' (1926:[https://runeberg.org/nfcr/0604.html 1120])</ref> The letters patent referred to here is that issued by Holy Roman Emperor [[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles IV]] to Wicker Frosch, a [[Medieval bourgeoisie|burgher]] of [[Frankfurt]], on 30 September 1360. ''[[Svenska Akademiens ordbok]]'' mentions "circa 1420" as the threshold date.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.saob.se/artikel/?seek=uradel |publisher=[[Swedish Academy]] |title=Ur-adel |quote=i sht hist. om adel(ssläkt) som erhållit adelskap före ca 1420 (o. därmed hör till de äldsta i landet); motsatt: sköldebrevsadel. |work=[[Svenska Akademiens ordbok]]}}</ref> In Norway, one of the earliest known letters patent is of 1458.{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}

{{anchor|Hochadel}}
==Hochadel (High Nobility)==
{{see|Hochadel}}
''Hochadel'' is not a synonym for  {{lang|de|Uradel}}. Whereas {{lang|de|Uradel}} (medieval or feudal nobility before AD 1400) is opposed to {{lang|de|Briefadel}} (nobility by letters – or patent – of nobility, mostly from the post-medieval period after AD 1400), ''Hochadel'' (high nobility) is opposed to ''Niederer Adel'' (lower nobility). The differentiation of {{lang|de|Uradel}} from {{lang|de|Briefadel}} is age-based, whereas the distinction between ''Hochadel'' and ''Niederer Adel'' is based on the rank of titles, with ''Hochadel'' including all royal, princely and ducal houses of Europe, as well as the former German [[Imperial Count]]s, as far as they ruled an [[Imperial Estate|Imperial State]] with a seat on one of the four "benches of counts" in the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]] until 1806.

The ''[[Almanach de Gotha]]'' (followed by subsequent series) differentiates between three sections of ''Hochadel''. The first section listed Europe's [[sovereignty|sovereign]] houses, whether they reigned as emperor, king, grand duke, duke or prince. The second section contained the [[Mediatized Houses]] of Germany, which lost their semi-sovereignty within the [[Holy Roman Empire]] during the period of [[German mediatization]] between 1803 and 1815. The third section included the titular princely and ducal houses of Europe that never ruled as sovereigns.

Very few German ''Hochadel'' families belong to the {{lang|de|Briefadel}} instead of {{lang|de|Uradel}}, such as the [[Fugger family|Fugger]], 
[[Eggenberg family|Eggenberg]], [[Biron family|Biron]] and [[Karl Philipp von Wrede|Wrede]] families that rose to the rank of ''[[Fürst]]'' (prince). On a European level, there are some more examples of royal or princely families that rose to the high nobility after the middle ages, such as the [[House of Bonaparte]] (and other Napoleonic families like the [[House of Bernadotte]], [[Michel Ney|Ney]], [[Prince Murat|Murat]], [[Duke of Otranto|Fouché d'Otrante]], [[Louis-Alexandre Berthier|Berthier of Wagram]], etc.), the Italian princes [[Torlonia]] and the Russian princes [[Demidov]].

== See also ==
* [[Nobles of the Sword]], approximate French equivalent 
* [[Extended family]]
* [[Clan]]

==References==
; Notes
{{Reflist}}

; Bibliography
* {{cite book | last= Godsey | first= William D. | title= Nobles and Nation in Central Europe: Free Imperial Knights in the Age of Revolution, 1750–1850 | publisher= Cambridge University Press | year= 2004 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bh0Syp1dEewC&q=%22ancient+nobility%22+Uradel&pg=PA58 | isbn= 9781139456098}}

[[Category:Titles of nobility of the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Austrian noble titles]]
[[Category:German noble titles]]
[[Category:Norwegian nobility]]
[[Category:Swedish nobility]]

[[de:Deutscher Adel#Uradel / Alter Adel]]