American Nobility

[da Racontor]

There was a chance that the United States could have been some form of monarchy for at least some period of time, (how successful and what type is not the point of this thread). With a monarch usually come nobility. What titles would those nobles hold?

Is it possible the titles of colonial South Carolina be resurrected, could they use a modified British system, or even create something new?

 

[Maniakes]

Knighthoods are the obvious first titles to hand out, due to firm rooting in English tradition and since a knighthood doesn't necessarily come with any lands or formal political power so there's little real cost to creating them. Beyond that, there's several directions things could go depending on how and why the US becomes a Monarchy.

On of Hamilton's early constitutional proposals had the President being elected for life and appointing State Governors who would serve at his pleasure. If you have a monarchy based on the Hamilton framework (with a King in place of the President), I could see "Governor" gradually acquiring noble connotations, especially if an expectation develops that Governors have tenure for life under good behavior (like judges IOTL) and that a retiring Governor's most suitable son is his logical successor.

If a monarchist constitution were to be drafted inspired in part by Cromwell's Protectorate, we could see the upper house of the Legislature filled by nomination for life by the King. "Senator" is the most likely title for these life peers, but the ATL framers could simply call them "Peers" or "Lords of Congress" (after the Scottish title "Lord of Parliament", equivalent to an English Baron), or they could find another historical inspiration other than the Romans.

If the monarch is a military strongman (e.g. if Washington had gone along with the Newburgh Conspiracy), a likely move to consolidate power would be to assert control of the trans-Appalachian territories previously surrendered by the states to the Continental Congress and use Western land grants as a way of rewarding supporters and paying off important interests. These grants might come with titles, perhaps modeled off of the English peerage (Duke, Earl, Baron, etc), or perhaps modeled after Colonial titles ("Lord Proprietor" for the owner of a state-equivalent, and maybe the Cassique/Landgrave titles you alluded to for smaller or subsidiary titles, or even trying to obfuscate the creation of a new nobility by reusing titles used in republican state governments (Governor, Sheriff, etc).

 

[Infinity]

There was already baron Baltimore otl. William Penn had the largest fief of all. New York was founded by "patroons." The most generic title for a large land owner is "lord."

 

[Md139115]

Exceptions like Hamilton notwithstanding, the vast majority of the Founding Fathers were believers in the fundamental equality of men, regardless of social class (“The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse“ as Ben Franklin put it). Even if a monarchy was created, you still would probably have something along the lines of Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution.

That being said though, there’s no reason at all why a government cannot create a military branch and give commissions in it like the Kentucky colonels or the Nebraska admirals.

 

[piratedude]

The closest thing that OTL got with this was the Society of the Cincinnati, a hereditary society of Revolutionary war vets and their sons. Hamilton had proposed to have them compose a sort of house of lords analogue.

The problem with this sort of thing was that the entire semifeudal system that had been established by the british in the colonies was ripped to shreds by the revolutionaries both during and after the war. No one wanted the old system of elites back

 

[Arkenfolm]

I can't imagine a bunch of American nobles being perceived well by European nobles. Probably one step above the Haitian nobility, really. What would the qualifications be? Military success? Wealth and landowning? European nobility would laugh at the upjumped peasants and gentry who would make up American nobility.

 

[Infinity]

I can't imagine a bunch of American nobles being perceived well by European nobles. Probably one step above the Haitian nobility, really. What would the qualifications be? Military success? Wealth and landowning? European nobility would laugh at the upjumped peasants and gentry who would make up American nobility.

Patroons owned more land than European nobles.

 

[Socrates]

I can easily forsee, in the event of an averted American Revolution, the British upgrading the colonies to dominion status by giving them Houses of Lords.

 

[Riain]

One way might be giving land grants to people on the frontier on the condition they guard the area, most likely in the earliest colonial era when the British still had titles etc., thereby linking land/private property directly to political power.