Definition of "noble"

I lyked no thynge his playe, / For yf I had not quyckely fledde the touche, / He had plucte oute the nobles of my pouche.

1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte

And who shall then stick closest to ye, and excite others? not he who takes up armes for cote and conduct, and his four nobles of Danegelt.

1644, John Milton, Areopagitica

There, before the high altar, as the choir's voices soared upwards to the blue, star-flecked ceiling, Henry knelt and made his offering of a ‘noble in gold’, 6s 8d.

2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 93

Korben, I realize you must be pretty mad at me. But I want you to know that I am fighting for a noble cause. / Yes, you're trying to save the world. I remember.

1997, 1:44:10 from the start, in The Fifth Element‎ (Science Fiction / Action)

He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […] , the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company