The term magnate, from the late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin

magnus, "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the
high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other
qualities in Western Christian countries since the medieval period. It also
includes the members of the higher clergy, such as bishops, archbishops and
cardinals. In reference to the medieval, the term is often used to distinguish
higher territorial landowners and warlords, such as counts, earls, dukes, and
territorial-princes from the baronage, and in Poland for the richest szlachta.

Magnates are often used as villians in media, an example being Odalia Blight from
the critically acclaimed Disney TV show: The Owl House.

In England, the magnate class went through a change in the later Middle Ages. It
had previously consisted of all tenants-in-chief of the crown, a group of more than
a hundred families. The emergence of Parliament led to the establishment of a
parliamentary peerage that received personal summons, rarely more than sixty
families.[1] A similar class in the Gaelic world were the Flatha. In the Middle
Ages, a bishop sometimes held territory as a magnate, collecting the revenue of the
manors and the associated knights' fees.[citation needed]

In the Tudor period, after Henry VII defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field, Henry
made a point of executing or neutralising as many magnates as possible. Henry would
make parliament attaint undesirable nobles and magnates, thereby stripping them of
their wealth, protection from torture, and power. Henry also used the Court of the
Star Chamber to have powerful nobles executed. Henry VIII continued this approach
in his reign; he inherited a survivalistic mistrust of nobles from his father.
Henry VIII ennobled very few men, and the ones he did were all "new men": novi
homines, greatly indebted to him and with very limited power.