аристократия

This article analyses the draft reorganization of the administration of the border counties between England and Scotland, which was submitted to the monarch by Thomas Wharton. Thomas Wharton, a nobleman from Westmorland, had long held various posts in the frontier administration and was considered one of the most experienced and loyal nobles of the frontier. In his project, Wharton proposed a precise fixation of the rules of frontier administration and a concentration of strategically important land holdings and frontier strongholds in the monarch’s hands.

The article discusses some aspects of the participation of the Roman nobility of the Principate period in providing the military command of the empire. This issue is being investigated in connection with the problem of the inertia of the aristocratic consciousness, which manifested itself in the desire of representatives of the Roman nobility for military glory. It is concluded that the military command in the early Roman Empire, having become an imperial prerogative, continued to be an expression of aristocratic identity.

Geoffrey Chaucer is a representative of an early English humanistic literature, who in his «The Canterbury tales» managed to show the whole panorama of social life in England of the XIV century. His short stories reflect the epochal change, the formation of new values and a new elite. Chaucer notes the degradation of the secular and spiritual aristocracy, welcomes the enrichment and strengthening of the third estate, connects it with the future of their country, admires workers-peasants that preserved the moral purity of the «corrupt age» of the poet.

The article is devoted to the role of the imperial court in the «personnel reserve» formation for high governmental and military posts during the reign period of Catherine the Great. Comparative study of courtier’s and Page Corps graduates career development was held for this research by the means of two specially created prosopographical databases. The obtained results give us an opportunity to evaluate the impact of a court rank granting on the nobles career development and on receiving an appointment to the important governmental and military posts.