Ennoblement

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Nobilitation means the act of making one a noble - member of nobility social class. Depending on time and region, various laws governed who and how could be nobilitaded. Typically nobilitation was conferred on individuals who had assisted the sovereign. In some countries (e.g. France of Ancien Regime, this degenerated into the buying of nobility, where rich commoners (e.g. merchants) could buy a noble title.

Kingdom of Poland

In the kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, nobilitation (nobilitacja) meant the joining of szlachta (Polish nobility). It was granted by the monarch, who gave the ennobled person coat of arms. Sometimes that person could join the existing noble szlachta family with their own coat of arms.

Polish ancient law recognized also the terms:

Indygenat - recognizing of foreign noble status. The foreign noble, after indygenat, received all privileges of a Polish szlachcic. In Polish history, 413 foreign noble families were recognized. From 1578 this was done by king and Sejm (Polish parliament), after 1641 it was done by Sejm only.
Skartabelat - introduced by pacta conventa of 1669, a form of semi-nobility. Skartebelats could not hold public offices or be members of the Sejm for 3 generations.
Adopcja - nobilitation by the noble family, abolished in 1633

Imperial Russia

After the reforms of Tsar Peter the Great in the early 18th century, noblemen in Russia were obligated to serve as civil or military officials. Personal nobility was automatically conferred to all civil and military officials starting with the corresponding rank of Captain. Hereditary nobility was conferred for all officials with the rank of Colonel (Any given military post had an equivalent civil one, rank-wise). The system was later extended to merchants and industrialists that with a successful career managing a business of moderate size would achieve personal or hereditary nobility.

Ennoblement

Kingdom of Poland

Imperial Russia

See also