The Nobility of Italy comprises individuals and their families of the Italian peninsula, and the islands linked with it, recognized by sovereigns, such as the Holy Roman Emperor, the Holy See, the Kings of Italy, and certain other Italian kings and sovereigns, as members of a class of persons officially enjoying hereditary privileges which distinguished them from other persons and families. They often held lands as fiefs and were sometimes endowed with hereditary titles or nobiliary particles. From the Middle Ages until 1861, "Italy" was not a single country but was a number of separate kingdoms and other states, with many reigning dynasties. These were often related through marriage to each other and to other European royal families.