An authoritative and accessible survey of the European nobility over four centuries.

Jerzy Lukowski shows the pressures and tensions, both from below and from governments, which increasingly challenged traditional ruling groups in Europe during

In recent years scholars have increasingly challenged and reassessed the once established concept of the 'crisis of the nobility' in early-modern Europe. Offeri

This volume on European nobility includes coverage of the following: serfdom and service nobility; the Swedish nobility 1600-1772; the rise and fall of the Dani