Page "Royal and noble ranks" Paragraph 67

Several ranks were widely used ( for more than a thousand years in Europe alone ) for both sovereign rulers and non-sovereigns.

Additional knowledge about the territory and historic period is required to know whether the rank holder was a sovereign or non-sovereign.

However, joint precedence among rank holders often greatly depended on whether a rank holder was sovereign, whether of the same rank or not.

This situation was most widely exemplified by the Holy Roman Empire ( HRE ) in Europe.

Almost all of the following ranks were commonly both sovereign and non-sovereign within the HRE.

Outside of the HRE, the most common sovereign rank of these below was that of Prince.

Within the HRE, those holding the following ranks who were also sovereigns had ( enjoyed ) what was known as an immediate relationship with the Emperor.

Those holding non-sovereign ranks held only a mediate relationship ( meaning that the civil hierarchy upwards was mediated by one or more intermediaries between the rank holder and the Emperor ).