What is "maharlika"

The Maharlika were the feudal warrior class in ancient Tagalog society in Luzon the Philippines translated in Spanish as Hidalgos, and meaning freeman, libres or freedman. They belonged to the lower nobility class similar to the Timawa of the Visayan people. In modern Filipino, however, the term itself has erroneously come to mean "royal nobility", which was actually restricted to the hereditary Maginoo class.