exercised a paternal authority (such as that of permitting or refusing their vassals a right to marry); and had the power of life and death. [Sidenote: Hierarchy of the nobility.] [Sidenote: Social vanity.] [Sidenote: Survivals of medievalism among the nobles.] The hierarchy of the nobility was definitely established in this period. At the top, representing the medieval _ricoshombres_, were the grandees (_Grandes_) and the “titles” (_Títulos_). The principal difference between the two was that the former were privileged to remain covered in the presence of the king and to be called “cousins” of the monarch, while those of the second grade might only be called “relatives,”--empty honors, which were much esteemed, however, as symbolic of rank. These groups monopolized all titles such as marquis, duke, count, and prince. Below them were the _caballeros_ and the _hidalgos_. The word _hidalgos_ was employed to designate those nobles of inferior rank without fortune, lands, jurisdiction, or high public office. The desire for the noble rank of _hidalgo_ and the vanity marked by the devising of family shields became a national disease, and resulted in fact in the increase of the _hidalgo_ class. The people of Guipúzcoa claimed that they were all _hidalgos_, and received the royal recognition of their pretension. Measures were taken to check this dangerous exemplification of social pride, but on the other hand the treasury found the sale of rights of _hidalguía_ a profitable source of income. In 1541 there were less than 800,000 taxpayers in Castile, but over 100,000 _hidalgos_. The nobles did not at once forget their medieval practices of duelling, private war, plotting, and violence. There were instances of these throughout the era, and in Aragon and Majorca they were almost continuous. Nevertheless, the situation did not become so serious as it had been in the past; it merely represented the deeply rooted force of noble tradition, which objected to any submission to discipline. Both the hierarchy of the nobility, with all its incidents of broad estates, jurisdictions, class pride, and vanity, and the irresponsible practices of the nobles passed over into the Americas. [Sidenote: Advance of the plebeian classes through the rise of the merchants and the _letrados_.]