Aristocrat in the context of "Sans-culottes"

The French Resistance (French: La Résistance [la ʁezistɑ̃s]) was a collection of groups that fought the Nazi occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime in France during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the Maquis in rural areas) who conducted guerrilla warfare and published underground newspapers. They also provided first-hand intelligence information, and escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind Axis lines. The Resistance's men and women came from many parts of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics (including clergy), Protestants, Jews, Muslims, liberals, anarchists, communists, and some fascists. The proportion of the French people who participated in organized resistance has been estimated at from one to three percent of the total population.

The French Resistance played a significant role in facilitating the Allies' rapid advance through France following the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. Members provided military intelligence on German defences known as the Atlantic Wall, and on Wehrmacht deployments and orders of battle for the Allies' invasion of Provence on 15 August. The Resistance also planned, coordinated, and executed sabotage acts on electrical power grids, transport facilities, and telecommunications networks. The Resistance's work was politically and morally important to France during and after the German occupation. The actions of the Resistance contrasted with the collaborationism of the Vichy régime.

Begum (also Begüm, Bagum, Begom, Begam, Baigum or Beygum) is an honorific title from Central and South Asia, often used by leading women in society, including royals, aristocrats, first ladies and prime ministers. It is the feminine equivalent of the title baig or bey, which in Turkic languages means "higher official". It usually refers to the wife or daughter of a beg. The related form begzada (daughter of a beg) also occurs.

In the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Delhi, Hyderabad, Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Bengal, begum has been adapted for use as an honorific for Muslim women of high social status, accomplishment, or rank, as in English language the title "Lady" or "Dame" is used.

The Russian nobility or dvoryanstvo (Russian: дворянство) arose in the Middle Ages. In 1914, it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members, out of a total population of 138,200,000 (1.38% of the population). Up until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian noble estates staffed most of the Russian government and possessed a self-governing body, the Assembly of the Nobility.

The Russian word for nobility, dvoryanstvo derives from Slavonic dvor (двор), meaning the court of a prince or duke (knyaz), and later, of the tsar or emperor. Here, dvor originally referred to servants at the estate of an aristocrat. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the system of hierarchy was a system of seniority known as mestnichestvo. The word dvoryane described the highest rank of gentry, who performed duties at the royal court, lived in it (Moskovskie zhiltsy, "Moscow dwellers"), or were candidates to it, as for many boyar scions (dvorovye deti boyarskie, vybornye deti boyarskie). A nobleman is called a dvoryanin (plural: dvoryane). Pre-Soviet Russia shared with other countries the concept that nobility connotes a status or social category rather than a title. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the title of the nobleman in Russia gradually became a formal status, rather than a reference to a member of the aristocracy, due to a massive influx of commoners via the Table of ranks.

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (née Spencer; /dʒɔːrˈdʒeɪnə/ jor-JAY-nə; 7 June 1757 – 30 March 1806), was an English aristocrat, socialite, political organiser, author, and activist. Born into the Spencer family, married into the Cavendish family, she was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, and the mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire.

The Duchess was famous for her charisma, political influence, beauty, unusual marital arrangement, love affairs, socializing, and notoriety for her gambling addiction, leading to an immense debt. She was the great-great-great-grandaunt of Diana, Princess of Wales. Their lives, two centuries apart, have been compared in tragedy.

Zog I (born Ahmed Muhtar Bey Zogolli; 8 October 1895 – 9 April 1961) was an Albanian statesman and aristocrat who served as the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. At age 27, he first served as Albania's youngest ever Prime Minister (1922–1924), then as president (1925–1928), and finally as King (1928–1939).

Born to an aristocratic beylik family in Ottoman Albania, Zogolli was active in Albanian politics from a young age and fought on the side of Austria-Hungary during the First World War. In 1922, he adopted the name Ahmed Zogu. He held various ministerial posts in the Albanian government before being driven into exile in June 1924, but returned later in the year with Yugoslav and White Russian military support and was subsequently elected prime minister. Zogu was elected president in January 1925 and vested with dictatorial powers, with which he enacted major domestic reforms, suppressed civil liberties, and struck an alliance with Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy. In September 1928, Albania was proclaimed a monarchy and he acceded to the throne as Zog I, King of the Albanians. He married Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony in 1938, and their only child, Leka, was born a year later.

Lieutenant-General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, KCB (16 October 1797 – 28 March 1868) was a British Army officer who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, leading its disastrous charge at the Battle of Balaclava. Throughout his life in politics and his long military career, Cardigan characterised the arrogant and extravagant aristocrat of the period. His progression through the British army was marked by many episodes of extraordinary incompetence, but also by generosity to the men under his command and genuine bravery. As a member of the aristocracy, he had actively and steadfastly opposed any political reform in Britain but, in the last year of his life, he relented and came to acknowledge that such reform would bring benefit to all classes of society.

A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces. At the same time, they were also used as an aristocrat's residence, around which a castle town was often constructed.