The Maharlika (meaning freeman or freedman) were the feudal warrior class in ancient Tagalog society in Luzon, the Philippines. The Spanish translated the name as Hidalgos (or libres). They belonged to the lower nobility class similar to the Timawa of the Visayan people. In modern Filipino, however, the word referred to aristocrats or to royal nobility, which was actually restricted to the hereditary Maginoo class.