CILANE


The European Commission of the Nobility is an organisation for cooperation of European nobility associations, established in 1959. Its seat is in Paris, France.

Functioning

The CILANE has no president but rather a "Coordinator", elected for three years. The coordinator's role is to prepare and conduct the spring and autumn sessions of the CILANE and to carry out its decisions, enabling each national association to carry out projects together. It holds an international congress every three years.
National associations recognised by CILANE are hereditary societies which must only grant full membership to persons who are legally noble under the current or former laws of their countries. There is no personal membership; instead, members of associations recognised by CILANE participate in its activities through their associations.
The spring session takes place traditionally in Paris, the seat of the CILANE. In autumn the sessions are held in one of the other member countries. Significantly, most of the organisations represented in CILANE are private initiatives, particularly in nations where titles of nobility are no longer recognised by their respective states and therefore unregulated by law.
Due to the position of the Permanent Deputation and Council of Grandees of Spain and Titles of the Kingdom of only recognizing foreign titles as such if "...the succession in these titles should only be reflected when they have been possessed by people who have recognized the succession of kings effectively reigning, but not claimants or holders in exile of disappeared kingdoms", particularly in "...in the case of titles of the extinct Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, such a kingdom no longer exists and the claimants to it are not effectively reigning monarchs", and the consequent internal divisions within it, Spain does not have official representation in the coordinating organization of the European nobility CILANE.

Member associations

, CILANE includes the following associations:
The Commission and Association for the Armigerous Families of Great Britain is the sole British nobility association recognised by CILANE. It was founded in 1996. AFGB was founded in 1996 under the auspices of the 17th Duke of Norfolk. Throughout its existence, it has cooperated with the English and Scottish heraldic authorities, and some of their representatives, such as Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfield, have joined the organisation.
AFGB admits members of the peerage and the gentry, using the right to heraldic arms as the main criterion for determining membership in the British nobility. All persons who have been granted arms by the College of Arms or Lord Lyon, as well as their male-line descendants entitled to the arms according to the Law of Arms may be admitted to the organisation. The AFGB utilises the same test of nobility as the Order of Malta, which equates the right to arms and the status of gentleman confirmed by it with untitled nobility in its British association. Feudal barons, esquires or gentlemen by prescription or office who are not also armigerous cannot be admitted to AFGB, but knights, baronets and peers can theoretically, even though a knighthood or hereditary title normally qualifies one for a grant of arms. AFGB only recognises a grant of arms as a nobiliary act if the recipient is a British citizen or is naturalised later.
Apart from being an association which admits persons who belong to the British nobility, AFGB also operates a commission, which seeks to coordinate the activities of more narrow organisations such as the Hereditary Peerage Association and facilitate their communication with CILANE and foreign nobility associations. The Duke of Norfolk presides over it. Current officers are: