Continental European Titles
Many who choose to invent false titles of nobility take advantage of the pool of formerly genuine titles of nobility that derive from a time when a country, now a republic, was once a monarchy; for example France, Austria, and the many parts of Germany that once had sovereign nobles. One advantage of assuming such a title, is that, contrary to the situation involving the British nobility, there is usually no longer any official arbitrator who can or will judge between two separate claimants to such a title. In some such countries, titles may nevertheless be protected by an appropriate law, such as France, or by an extension of copyright law, as in Portugal.
Outside monarchies, a distinction can be drawn between a legitimate historical title which is no longer recognised under a successor state (such as republic) but borne by hereditary heirs, as opposed to an invented or falsely-attributed title of nobility claimed without any historic basis.
Read more about this topic: False Titles Of Nobility
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)