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Originally Posted by David Johnston2
I would say landed knight is the lowest rank of noble. And yes, "landed knight" is a hereditary title...in that if you inherit the land you inherit the knighthood. Baronets were also lower, but in Megalos are just referred to as "lesser barons">
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Knighthood in the Medieval European sense is not inheritable. The son of a knight is not knighted automatically. It's an 'earned' title, though at some times earning it wasn't very hard. In others people avoided being knighted because the obligations cost too much.
Not being knighted didn't always stop you inheriting the land that was once a knight's fee, though, depending how strong the overlord's family had been vs how good your family was at making the inheritance customary.
The thing is, there was never a 'feudal system'. That's something people try to impose on the past to make sense of it. Every case was it's own special case.
In England 'baron' originally simply meant someone who held their lands directly from the king, with no intermediate noble. Thus barons often had other titles as well. Over time the meaning changed, and it became the lowest rank of 'true' noble (though baronets, etc. muddied things somewhat).