So I am a new DM doing my first ever campaign which is a homebrew.
And while I was writing some of it I came across the question of what are the actual rankings in a medieval army and general nobility?
where ever I look on the internet i just end up finding modern army ranks which is not really what I am looking for.
did consider posting in "DM only" but thought this was a more fitting place to do it.

So if anyone has a knowledge of the general rankings and what they have the power to do (fx army size or land area that they reign) plz post it here, I would help a lot, both for my curiosity and for my campaign.

Thank you from
JensJP ( a DM in need of assistance )

This is a good enough starting point. Assuming you want a medical flavor, you want the Post-Classical Ranks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_rank#Post-classical_ranks

Thanks for the answer, not really what i was looking for though, was more specifically looking for a list showing the rankings and power of each title/rank

Well what I thought you wanted was in the description of the "Orgins of the modern ranks."  Because it describes what  captain does(commands several platoons via his Lts'), and what a lieutenant did (back up captain, runs a platoons), Sergeants commands several squads, and several would be in a platoon.  The corporals were in charge of squads.

But I guess I am not clear what you want in terms of "Power" 

This article is pretty interesting but seems more of a english/european reference, different powers formt the era (Turk, Viking/Norse, Crusaders etc) would have there own set up and structures.

http://www.medieval-spell.com/Medieval-Army.html

You're going to get different ranking systems for different regions, and to some degree whether you're talking about defense/everyday home guard vs active military battles. Searching for 'military ranks crusades' got me a good couple hits:

What was the ranking system in the Crusader armies? If you’re asking if there were privates, corporals, sergeants, lieutenants and the like, in the form in which they exist today… Not really. In Medieval times, ranking was based on your social status. (Then goes into detail with examples of the breakdown of a fictional kingdom. Doesn't go into religious military units.)

What were all of the medieval army ranks? Similar answer to above, but some additional answers with more extended lists of roles, though again mostly from the Western perspective.

(Take a look at the related questions for the above, there are a few more in the same vein)

The Byzantine Army follows largely on from the Roman formation, obviously, but does have some key differences.

Rashidun Caliphate Army This wiki has some occasional formatting problems, so I'm iffy on it, but it's got the closest I saw to breaking down anything from the Eastern side by something approaching rank.

The nice thing about the D&D setting having a good basis in Medieval Europe is that it keeps a lot of things uncomplicated. You have leaders and followers, mostly determined by financial status with a little bit of public popularity thrown in for good measure. For military, you had those who commanded (and were given important-sounding titles that weren't standardized well), those who fought voluntarily, and those who were forced to fight. The ones who commanded tended to work alone with their troops with loyalty to some nation. There could be many sets of troops with their own commander each that rarely worked together.

Modern military structure would like just confuse the heck out of most of the medieval military as being excessive.

So, you're free to make up whatever you wish for your setting. Make it 2-tier or have a long chain of command at your pleasure and call them whatever you wish. I like "grunt" and "grand-poobah", personally.

Head on over to the rpg.net forums and ask your question. I'm 100% certain you'll get exactly what you need (and then some). This is not to disrespect the intelligence and knowledge of anyone on these forums but the rpg.net forums is the go to place for geek knowledge drops. You will attract the smartest folk and among them, a Tier 4 nerd will arise and teach you a thing or two.

Part of what is going on is that different countries had different ranking systems.   You would not expect Europe or Africa to use the same terms that China or the Aztecs used.

But you seem to expect that England would use the same terms that Poland does.   Honestly, did not happen.  Even with the Hapsburg taking over by marriage.   Because we are speaking English, what you are getting from the web sites etc is either a version of the English system, with perhaps some French and German ideas thrown in. 

I suggest you pick a country, any country, and go with their system.    If you wan the players to know the stuff already, go with England.  If you want to add some flavor, pick a country further away from England.   Give me a Dragoon, Boyar, or  Coronel any day of the week.

To be honest, it still isn’t standardized. The US had to invent the rank of 5star general in WWII because the highest we had was 4 star, but one of ours was put in charge of the entire allied contingent and other allied armies had 5star generals, and the highest we had was 4star and that simply wouldn’t work. So, the US added a star to the ranking system.

Also in WWII, the German navy had the rank of Kapitänleutnant because a U-boat crew was too small to have a Captain as the highest rank for a crew that size was Lieutenant. But whoever is in charge of the ship is always the “Captain” so they had the rank of “Captain Lieutenant” in German a Kapitänleutnant.

As you can see, the world’s military ranking system is still not as uniform as people think.

Quote from JensJP >>

Thanks for the answer, not really what i was looking for though, was more specifically looking for a list showing the rankings and power of each title/rank

 Yeah. You're not gonna find that since it never existed as a uniform system. As mentioned it varied over time and places and isn't even uniform today. Now, what you could do if you wanted a medieval-ish feel is to decide on a tier-based system that you think would fit in your world and then use the ranks from a time and place that you feel is appropriate. For example, this is a fairly easy model that I use as my standard go-to. 

A standard squad consist of eight privates and is led by a Sergeant with a Corporal as assisting squad leader. The squad consists of two section, each of four privates and the sergeant or corporal. A private who has served well or for an extended period of time can be promoted to lance-corporal. Sergeants can be promoted to Sergeant Majors (or Sergeant at arms, depending on which you think sounds cooler).

A platoon consists of between two and five squads and is led by Lieutenant who usually have a Sergeant Major/at arms assisting.

A company cosists of two to five platoons and is lead by a Captain assisted by a Lieutenant.

A battalion consists of at least two companies and is lead by a Colonel.

Anything larger than that is just called "an army" and is led by a General, marshall or Field Marshall (again, depending on what you think sounds cooler). If I feel it is needed I sometimes change the names of the ranks to denote different units. Scouts, Trooper, Archer, Corssbowmen for scouts, cavalry and ranged troops. Similarly you can have "Scout Sergeants" or "Cavalry Captains". If you want to mark the difference between government troops and mercenaries you can use suffixes like "of the Crown" (which I just made up, no historical evidence AFAIK) so General of the Crown Bob is leading the royal troops whereas Cavalry Lieutenant Lucy is a leading a platoon of Freelance cavalry.

Hope that helped.

Quote from JensJP >>

And while I was writing some of it I came across the question of what are the actual rankings in a medieval army and general nobility...

 https://www.debretts.com/expertise/essential-guide-to-the-peerage/ranks-and-privileges-of-the-peerage/ might be of help.