Early Modern European Nobles were the upper echelon of the upper echelon. They were the richest of the rich and many of them would not work a day in their lives. They were people born into a noble family who assumed the titles that were there before them. There are many cases of not so bright or incapable nobles who unfortunately inherited their titles. The noble's way of life was very luxurious and focused on leisure rather than work. They had many servants and the nobles dominated the highest positions in their territory. The nobles owned vast majorities of land, which provided them with income because the peasants who lived on the land had to pay rent, fees, and did manual labor for the nobles. If the nobles of this time had to adhere to Utopian arrangements I believe that there would have been a major uproar. Many of the ideas presented in Sir Thomas More's Utopia were very different than what the nobles were used to. The political, social, economic, and religious arrangements were very different than what Early Modern European Nobles were used to and the change to the Utopian society would not have sat very well with many of the nobles of the time. (Spielvogel, 392).
The Nobles of the time dominated the political aspect of their land. They appointed people into politics based on their blood rather than their political prowess in order to further their control of the land. Often times they had servants who did their every wish, almost to the point of slavery. Sir Thomas More says "The Prince is for life, unless he is removed upon suspicion of some design to enslave the people"" (More, 32). The peasants and how they were treated could have been looked at as slaves which would have left he door open to impeach the Prince. This would not have sat well with the nobles of the time. Also in order to have political power during this time period, nobles had to have a vast amount of land. In order to get this land they went out and took it from others, often with force.
