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103-515: The title of count is typically not used in England or English-speaking countries, and the term earl is used instead. A female holder of the title is still referred to as a countess , however. The word count came into English from the French comte , itself from Latin comes —in its accusative form comitem . It meant "companion" or "attendant", and as a title it indicated that someone

206-553: A marquess ); and the (alleged) murderer John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan . The oldest earldoms in Scotland (with the exception of the Earldom of Dunbar and March ) originated from the office of mormaer , such as the Mormaer of Fife , of Strathearn , etc.; subsequent earldoms developed by analogy. The principal distinction between earldom and mormaer is that earldoms were granted as fiefs of

309-485: A Glossary on Heraldica.org by Alexander Krischnig. The male form is followed by the female, and when available, by the territorial circumscription. Apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily permanently. Since Louis VII (1137–80), the highest precedence amongst the vassals ( Prince-bishops and secular nobility) of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief

412-560: A claim for his family, he sent his chancellor, Thomas Becket , to press for a marriage between Margaret and Henry's heir, Henry the Young King . Louis agreed to this proposal, and by the Treaty of Gisors (1158) betrothed the young pair, giving as a dowry the Norman city of Gisors and the surrounding county of Vexin . Louis was devastated when Constance died in childbirth on 4 October 1160. As he

515-424: A fever and returned to the Île-de-France. In 1154, Louis married Constance of Castile , daughter of King Alfonso VII of Castile . She also failed to supply him with a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Margaret and Alys . By 1157, Henry II of England began to believe that Louis might never produce a male heir, and that the succession of France would consequently be left in question. Determined to secure

618-423: A few exceptions, the default rank of the peerage to which a former prime minister was elevated. The last prime minister to accept an earldom was Harold Macmillan , who became earl of Stockton in 1984. A British earl is entitled to a coronet bearing eight strawberry leaves (four visible) and eight silver balls (or pearls ) around the rim (five visible). The actual coronet is rarely, if ever, worn except at

721-510: A friendship with the abbot Suger, an advisor to his father who also served Louis during his early years as king. Following the death of Duke William X of Aquitaine , Louis VI moved quickly to have his son married to Eleanor of Aquitaine (who had inherited William's territory) on 25 July 1137. In this way, Louis VI sought to add the large, sprawling territory of the duchy of Aquitaine to his family's holdings in France. On 1 August 1137, shortly after

824-539: A male heir to the throne of France. On 18 May 1152, Eleanor married the Count of Anjou, the future King Henry II of England. She gave him the duchy of Aquitaine and bore him three daughters and five sons. Louis led an ineffective war against Henry for having married without the authorisation of his suzerain . The result was a humiliation for the enemies of Henry and Eleanor, who saw their troops routed, their lands ravaged, and their property stolen. Louis reacted by coming down with

927-587: A military commander but was not a specific rank. In the Eastern Roman Empire , from about the seventh century, "count" was a specific rank indicating the commander of two centuriae (i.e., 200 men). The medieval title of comes was originally not hereditary. It was regarded as an administrative official dependent on the king, until the process of allodialisation during the 9th century in which such titles came to be private possessions of noble families. By virtue of their large estates, many counts could pass

1030-546: A rebellion deposed Tostig and recognised Morcar , the brother of Earl Edwin of Mercia, as Northumbria's new earl. The king accepted this, and Tostig was expelled from England. In 1066, according to the Domesday Book , the Godwin family estates were valued at £7,000, Earl Leofric of Mercia at £2,400, and Earl Siward of Northumbria at £350. In comparison, the king's lands were valued at £5,000. This concentration of land and wealth in

1133-532: A region, the more influence an earl had. The most powerful were the earls of Chester, who by the middle of the 13th century were described as earls palatine . Their power derived from owning most of the land in Cheshire. As a result, the shire court and the earl's honour court were identical, and the sheriff answered to the earl. The earl of Oxford possessed less than an acre of land in Oxfordshire (most of his land

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1236-455: A rule historically unrelated and thus hard to compare, but which are considered "equivalent" in rank. This is the case with: The title "Count" in fiction is commonly, though not always, given to evil characters, used as another word for prince or vampires: Earl Earl ( / ɜːr l , ɜːr əl / ) is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom . In modern Britain, an earl

1339-496: A title (unless he has one in his own right). The eldest son of an earl, though not himself a peer , is entitled to use a courtesy title , usually the highest of his father's lesser titles (if any). For instance, prior to his father's elevation to the Dukedom of Edinburgh, the eldest son of the Earl of Wessex was styled as James, Viscount Severn . The eldest son of the eldest son of an earl

1442-596: A training ground for new earls. Nevertheless, the earldoms of Wessex and Mercia were becoming hereditary. For four generations, Mercia was passed from father to son: Leofwine , Leofric , Ælfgar , and Edwin . To reward Godwin for his support, Edward made his eldest son, Sweyn , an earl in 1043. Harold , Godwin's second oldest son, was made the earl of East Anglia. In 1045, an earldom was created for Godwin's nephew, Beorn Estrithson . After Sweyn left England in disgrace in 1047, some of his estates were taken over by Harold and Beorn. Ralf of Mantes , Edward's Norman nephew,

1545-439: Is a distinction between counts (Swedish: greve ) created before and after 1809. All children in comital families elevated before 1809 were called count/countess. In families elevated after 1809, only the head of the family was called count, the rest have a status similar to barons and were called by the equivalent of "Mr/Ms/Mrs", before the recognition of titles of nobility was abolished. The following lists are originally based on

1648-589: Is a member of the peerage , ranking below a marquess and above a viscount . A feminine form of earl never developed; instead, countess is used. The title originates in the Old English word eorl , meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form jarl . After the Norman Conquest , it became the equivalent of the continental count . In Scotland, it assimilated

1751-421: Is entitled to use one of his grandfather's lesser titles, normally the second-highest of the lesser titles. Younger sons are styled The Honourable [ Forename ] [ Surname ], and daughters, The Lady [ Forename ] [ Surname ] ( Lady Diana Spencer being a well-known example). There is no difference between the courtesy titles given to the children of earls and the children of countesses in their own right, provided

1854-530: Is no male to inherit the title and the count has a daughter, in some regions she could inherit the title. Many Italian counts left their mark on Italian history as individuals, yet only a few contadi (countships; the word contadini for inhabitants of a "county" remains the Italian word for "peasant") were politically significant principalities, notably: The principalities tended to start out as margraviate or (promoted to) duchy, and became nominal archduchies within

1957-555: Is very prolific on the peninsula. In the eleventh century, Conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. Even apparently "lower"-sounding titles, like Viscount , could describe powerful dynasts, such as the House of Visconti which ruled a major city such as Milan . The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans,

2060-551: The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor . He was also portrayed by Charles Kay in the 1978 BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown . He has a role in Sharon Kay Penman 's novels When Christ and His Saints Slept and Devil's Brood . The early part of Norah Lofts ' biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine deals considerably with Louis, seen through Eleanor's eyes and giving her side in their problematic relationship. Louis

2163-508: The Angevin Empire . Later, Louis supported Henry and Eleanor's sons in their rebellion against their father to foment further disunity in the Angevin realms. His second marriage to Constance of Castile also produced two daughters, but his third wife, Adela of Champagne , gave birth to a son, Philip Augustus . Louis died in 1180 and was succeeded by his son, Philip II. Louis was born in 1120,

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2266-618: The First Bulgarian Empire , a komit was a hereditary provincial ruler under the tsar documented since the reign of Presian (836-852) The Cometopouli dynasty was named after its founder, the komit of Sredets . The title of Serdar was used in the Principality of Montenegro and the Principality of Serbia as a noble title below that of Voivode equivalent to that of Count. In Denmark and historically in Denmark-Norway

2369-512: The Frankish kingdoms in the early Middle Ages , a count might also be a count palatine , whose authority derived directly over a royal household, a palace in its original sense of the seat of power and administration. This other kind of count had vague antecedents in Late Antiquity too: the father of Cassiodorus held positions of trust with Theodoric, as comes rerum privatarum , in charge of

2472-480: The North Sea Empire , extended beyond England, forcing him to delegate power to earls. Earls were governors or viceroys , ruling in the king's name, keeping the peace, dispensing justice, and raising armies. Like the earlier ealdormen, they received the third penny from their jurisdictions. Earls ranked above thegns in precedence and were the chief counselors in the witan (king's council). The office of earl

2575-462: The Peerage of Ireland . Notable among those who agreed to this policy of " surrender and regrant " were Ulick na gCeann Burke, 1st Earl of Clanricarde , Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond , Donald McCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancare , Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell , Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim and Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone . The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell later rebelled against

2678-601: The Second Crusade in 1147, Louis stayed at the court of King Géza II of Hungary on the way to Jerusalem . During his stay in the Holy Land , disagreements with Eleanor led to a deterioration in their marriage. She persuaded him to stay in Antioch but Louis instead wanted to fulfil his vows of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was later involved in the failed siege of Damascus and eventually returned to France in 1149. Louis' reign saw

2781-581: The Second Crusade , Louis and his queen set out from the Basilica of Saint-Denis , first stopping in Metz on the overland route to Syria . Soon they arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary , where they were welcomed by the king Géza II of Hungary , who was already waiting with King Conrad III of Germany . Due to his good relationships with Louis, Géza II asked the French king to be his son Stephen 's godfather. Relations between

2884-414: The archbishopric of Bourges became vacant. The king supported the chancellor Cadurc as a candidate to fill the vacancy against the pope's nominee Pierre de la Chatre , swearing upon relics that so long as he lived, Pierre should never enter Bourges. The pope thus imposed an interdict upon the king. Louis then became involved in a war with Theobald II of Champagne by permitting Raoul I of Vermandois ,

2987-444: The coronation of a new monarch, but in heraldry an earl may bear his coronet of rank on his coat of arms above the shield. An earl has the title Earl of [X] when the title originates from a placename, or Earl [X] when the title comes from a surname. In either case, he is referred to as Lord [X] , and his wife as Lady [X] . A countess who holds an earldom in her own right also uses Lady [X] , but her husband does not have

3090-735: The earl of Gloucester . After the Conquest, new earldoms tended to be named for the city and castle in which they were based. Some titles became attached to the family name rather than location. For example, the holder of the earldom of Surrey was more commonly called "Earl Warenne". The same was true of the earldom of Buckingham , whose holder was called "Earl Gifford". These earls may have preferred to be known by family names that were older and more prestigious than their newer territorial designations. The number of earls rose from seven in 1135 to twenty in 1141 as King Stephen ( r.  1135–1154 ) created twelve new earls to reward supporters during

3193-464: The seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife, Theobald II's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine , sister of the queen of France. As a result, Champagne decided to side with the pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry-en-Perthois . At least 1,500 people who had sought refuge in

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3296-415: The 13th century earls had a social rank just below the king and princes, but were not necessarily more powerful or wealthier than other noblemen. The only way to become an earl was to inherit the title or to marry into one—and the king reserved a right to prevent the transfer of the title. By the 14th century, creating an earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around

3399-548: The 16th century all new peerages were always duchies and the medieval countship-peerages had died out, or were held by royal princes Other French countships of note included those of: See also above for parts of present France A Graf ruled over a territory known as a Grafschaft ('county'). See also various comital and related titles; especially those actually reigning over a principality: Gefürsteter Graf , Landgraf , Reichsgraf ; compare Markgraf , Burggraf , Pfalzgraf ( see Imperial quaternions ). The title of Conte

3502-428: The 19th century, the title, having lost its high rank (equivalent to that of Duke ), proliferated. Portugal itself started as a countship in 868, but became a kingdom in 1139 (see: County of Portugal ). Throughout the history of Portugal , especially during the constitutional monarchy many other countships were created. In Spain, no countships of wider importance exist, except in the former Spanish march. In

3605-586: The Anarchy , the civil war fought with his cousin Empress Matilda for the English throne. In 1138, Stephen created eight new earldoms: In 1140, Roumare was given the earldom of Lincoln in exchange for Cambridge, and William d'Aubigny received the earldom of Sussex (commonly known as Arundel) . The same year, Geoffrey de Mandeville was made earl of Essex , and his is the oldest surviving charter of creation. Around

3708-483: The Aquitaine with which Eleanor was familiar. Louis and Eleanor had two daughters, Marie and Alix . In the first part of his reign, Louis was vigorous and zealous in the exercise of his prerogatives . His accession was marked by no disturbances other than uprisings by the burgesses of Orléans and Poitiers , who wished to organise communes . He soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II , however, when

3811-512: The Conqueror ( r.  1066–1087 ) reduced the size of earldoms; those created after 1071 had responsibility for one shire. Like Norman counts, earls became military governors assigned to vulnerable border or coastal areas. To protect the Welsh Marches , the king made Roger de Montgomery the earl of Shrewsbury and Hugh d'Avranches the earl of Chester (see Marcher Lord ) . Likewise,

3914-500: The Habsburg dynasty; noteworthy are: Apart from various small ones, significant were : Count/Countess was one of the noble titles granted by the Pope as a temporal sovereign, and the title's holder was sometimes informally known as a papal count/papal countess or less so as a Roman count/Roman countess, but mostly as count/countess. The comital title, which could be for life or hereditary,

4017-611: The King, while mormaers were virtually independent. The earl is thought to have been introduced by the anglophile king David I . While the power attached to the office of earl was swept away in England by the Norman Conquest, in Scotland earldoms retained substantial powers, such as regality throughout the Middle Ages. It is important to distinguish between the land controlled directly by

4120-453: The Middle Ages the title of jarl (earl) was the highest title of nobility. The title was eventually replaced by the title of duke, but that title was abolished in Denmark and Norway as early as the Middle Ages. Titles were only reintroduced with the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660, with count as the highest title. In Sweden the rank of count is the highest rank conferred upon nobles in

4223-770: The aftermath of the Jacobite rising , the Heritable Jurisdictions Act brought the powers of the remaining ancient earldoms under the control of the sheriffs; earl is now simply a noble rank. Some of the most significant Earls ( Welsh : ieirll , singular iarll ) in Welsh history were those from the West of England. As Wales remained independent of any Norman jurisdiction, the more powerful Earls in England were encouraged to invade and establish effective " buffer states " to be run as autonomous lordships . These Marcher Lords included

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4326-455: The archbishop, asking when Becket refused Henry's conciliations, "Do you wish to be more than a Saint?" Louis also tried to weaken Henry by supporting his rebellious sons, and encouraged Plantagenet disunity by making Henry's sons, rather than Henry himself, the feudal overlords of the Angevin territories in France. But the rivalry among Henry's sons and Louis's own indecisiveness broke up the coalition (1173–1174) between them. Finally, in 1177,

4429-678: The arrows, and to prevent himself from being captured he defended the crag with his bloody sword, cutting off many heads and hands. Louis and his army finally reached the Holy Land in 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Poitiers , and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis's interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret. He united with King Conrad III of Germany and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay siege to Damascus ; this ended in disaster and

4532-467: The cause of Alexander III, who lived at Sens from 1163 to 1165. In return for his loyal support, the pope bestowed upon Louis the Golden Rose . More important for English history would be Louis's support for Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury , whom he tried to reconcile with Henry II. Louis sided with Becket as much to damage Henry as out of piety—yet even he grew irritated with the stubbornness of

4635-400: The centuries wore on, the term earl came to be disassociated from the office, and later kings started granting the title of earl without it, and gradually without even an associated comitatus . By the 16th century there started to be earls of towns, of villages, and even of isolated houses; it had simply become a label for marking status, rather than an office of intrinsic power. In 1746, in

4738-449: The church died in the flames. Condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities, Louis removed his armies from Champagne and returned them to Theobald. He accepted Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges and shunned Raoul and Petronilla. Desiring to atone for his sins, he declared his intention of mounting a crusade on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges. Bernard of Clairvaux assured its popularity by his preaching at Vezelay on Easter 1146. In

4841-399: The concept of mormaer . Since the 1960s, earldoms have typically been created only for members of the royal family . The last non-royal earldom, Earl of Stockton , was created in 1984 for Harold Macmillan , prime minister from 1957 to 1963. Alternative names for the rank equivalent to "earl" or "count" in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as the hakushaku (伯爵) of

4944-798: The crown and were forced to flee Ireland in 1607; their departure, along with about ninety followers, is famed in Irish history as the Flight of the Earls , seen as the ultimate demise of native Irish monarchy. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in 1801, and the last Irish earldom was created in 1824. The Republic of Ireland does not recognise titles of nobility. Notable later Irish earls include Jacobite leader Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan ; Postmaster General Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty ; Prime Minister William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (later made

5047-401: The earl, in a landlord-like sense, and the region over which he could exercise his office. Scottish use of Latin terms provincia and comitatus makes the difference clear. Initially these terms were synonymous, as in England, but by the 12th century they were seen as distinct concepts, with comitatus referring to the land under direct control of the earl, and provincia referring to

5150-547: The earls of Chester , Gloucester , Hereford , Pembroke and Shrewsbury (see also English Earls of March ). The first Earldoms created within Wales were the Lordship of Glamorgan (a comital title) and the Earldom of Pembroke . Tir Iarll (English: Earl's land ) is an area of Glamorgan , which has traditionally had a particular resonance in Welsh culture . An earldom became, with

5253-558: The emergence of the title came the most powerful symbol of entitlement, that is the ownership of and jurisdiction over land, hence the term county . The term is derived from the Old French conté or cunté denoting a jurisdiction under the control of a count ( earl ) or a viscount . The modern French is comté , and its equivalents in other languages are contea , contado , comtat , condado , Grafschaft , graafschap , etc. (cf. conte , comte , conde , Graf ). The title of Count

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5356-468: The estate had to be divided between five co-heirs (the two daughters of his eldest sister and his three surviving sisters). Before the land could be divided, King Alexander II of Scotland claimed the earldom of Huntingdon. While the king's council dismissed this claim, the Scottish king was granted the lands attached to Huntingdon but not the title. This reduced the land available to John's co-heirs and created

5459-678: The first free Constitution of Denmark of 1849 came a complete abolition of the privileges of the nobility. Since then the title of count has been granted only to members of the Danish royal family , either as a replacement for a princely title when marrying a commoner, or in recent times, instead of that title in connection with divorce. Thus the first wife of Prince Joachim of Denmark , the younger son of Margrethe II of Denmark , became Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg on their divorce—initially retaining her title of princess, but losing it on her remarriage. In

5562-623: The founding of the University of Paris . He and his counsellor, Abbot Suger , pushed for greater centralisation of the state and favoured the development of French Gothic architecture , notably the construction of Notre-Dame de Paris . Louis' marriage to Eleanor was annulled in 1152 after the couple had produced two daughters, but no male heir. Immediately after their annulment, Eleanor married Henry , Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou , to whom she conveyed Aquitaine . Following Henry's accession as King Henry II of England, these territories formed

5665-453: The hands of the earls, and one family in particular, weakened the Crown's authority. The situation was reversed when Harold Godwinson became king, and he was able to restore the Crown's authority. The Norman Conquest of 1066 introduced a new Anglo-Norman aristocracy that gradually replaced the old Anglo-Saxon elite. In Normandy , a duchy in the Kingdom of France , the equivalent of an earl

5768-538: The husband of the countess has a lower rank than she does. If her husband has a higher rank, their children will be given titles according to his rank. Louis VII of France Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), called the Younger or the Young (French: le Jeune ) to differentiate him from his father Louis VI , was king of France from 1137 to 1180. His first marriage was to Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine , one of

5871-429: The imperial lands, then as comes sacrarum largitionum ("count of the sacred doles"), concerned with the finances of the realm. In the United Kingdom, the title of earl is used instead of count . Although the exact reason is debated by historians and linguists, one of the more popular theories proposes that count fell into disuse because of its phonetic similarity to the vulgar slang word cunt . Originally, with

5974-654: The king's half-brother Odo of Bayeux was made earl of Kent to guard the English Channel . After the Revolt of the Earls in 1075, only four earldoms remained, all held by Anglo-Normans: Kent, Shrewsbury, Chester, and Northumbria. This number was reduced to three after 1082 when Odo of Bayeux was arrested and deprived of Kent. At the death of William Rufus in 1100, there were five earldoms: Chester, Shrewsbury, Surrey (or Warrenne), Warwick , and Huntingdon – Northampton . In 1122, Henry I made his illegitimate son Robert

6077-496: The king's interests in the region, thus being more like a coroner . As such, a parallel system of justice arose, between that provided by magnates (represented by the earls), and that by the king (represented by sheriffs), in a similar way to England having both Courts Baron and Magistrates , respectively. Inevitably, this led to a degree of forum shopping , with the king's offering – the Sheriff – gradually winning. As in England, as

6180-570: The king's name. However, they were developing more autonomy and becoming a threat to royal power. Three great aristocratic families had emerged: the Godwins of Wessex, Leofric of Mercia , and Siward of Northumbria . In theory, earls could be removed by the king. Edward deliberately broke the hereditary succession to Northumbria when Earl Siward died in 1055. He ignored the claims of Siward's son, Waltheof , and appointed Tostig Godwinson as earl. The earldom of East Anglia appears to have been used as

6283-557: The kingdoms of France and Hungary remained cordial long after this time: decades later, Louis's daughter Margaret was taken as wife by Géza's son Béla III of Hungary . After receiving provisions from Géza, the armies continued the march to the East. Just beyond Laodicea at Honaz , the French army was ambushed by Turks. In the resulting battle of Mount Cadmus , the Turks first bombarded the French with arrows and heavy stones, then swarmed down from

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6386-568: The lands attached to the Chester earldom through a series of land exchanges with the co-heirs. In 1227, Henry III ( r.  1216–1272 ) granted his justiciar and chief minister , Hubert de Burgh , the earldom of Kent. The terms of inheritance were unprecedented: the earldom was to pass to Hubert's son by his third wife Margaret of Scotland , thereby passing over his eldest son by his first wife. It may have been thought that Margaret's royal blood made her children more worthy of inheritance. By

6489-601: The local fyrd and presided over the shire court alongside the bishop . As compensation, he received the third penny : one-third of the shire court's profits and the boroughs ' revenues. Initially, the ealdorman governed a single shire. Starting with Edward the Elder ( r.  899–924 ), it became customary for one ealdorman to administer three or four shires together as an ealdormanry. During Cnut 's reign (1016–1035), ealdorman changed to earl (related to Old English eorl and Scandinavian jarl ). Cnut's realm,

6592-426: The marriage, Louis VI died, and Louis became king. The pairing of the monkish Louis and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk. There was a marked difference between the frosty, reserved culture of the northern court in the Île-de-France , where Louis had been raised, and the rich, free-wheeling court life of

6695-405: The meantime, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou , completed his conquest of Normandy in 1144. In exchange for being recognised as Duke of Normandy by Louis, Geoffrey surrendered half of the county of Vexin—a region vital to Norman security—to Louis. Considered a clever move by Louis at the time, it would later prove yet another step towards Angevin rule. In June 1147, in fulfillment of his vow to mount

6798-511: The modern era and are, like their Danish and Norwegian counterparts, broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. Unlike the rest of Scandinavia, the title of duke is still used in Sweden, but only by members of the royal family and are not considered part of the nobility. Like other major Western noble titles , Count is sometimes used to render certain titles in non-western languages with their own traditions, even though they are as

6901-507: The mountains and massacred them. The historian Odo of Deuil gives this account: During the fighting the King Louis lost his small and famous royal guard, but he remained in good heart and nimbly and courageously scaled the side of the mountain by gripping the tree roots [...] The enemy climbed after him, hoping to capture him, and the enemy in the distance continued to fire arrows at him. But God willed that his cuirass should protect him from

7004-464: The next day at Barbeau Abbey , which he had founded. His remains were moved to the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1817. Louis' children by his three marriages: With Eleanor of Aquitaine : With Constance of Castile : With Adela of Champagne : Louis is a character in Jean Anouilh 's 1959 play Becket . In the 1964 film adaptation , he was portrayed by John Gielgud , who was nominated for

7107-483: The office rather than the officeholder. Stephen Baxter argued that given the evidence, it must be "assumed that the 'comital manors' in each shire could be transferred by the king from one earl to another with relative ease". However, not all scholars agree with the existence of such "comital" property. During the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066), the earls were still royal officers governing their earldoms in

7210-460: The other languages of Great Britain and Ireland, the term is translated as: Welsh iarll , Irish and Scottish Gaelic iarla , Scots erle , eirle or earle , Cornish yurl, yarl, yerl . The office of earl evolved from the ealdorman, an office within Anglo-Saxon government . The English king appointed the ealdorman to be the chief officer in a shire . He commanded

7313-499: The pope intervened to bring the two kings to terms at Vitry-en-Perthois . In 1165, Louis's third wife bore him a son and heir, Philip . Louis had him crowned at Reims in 1179, in the Capetian tradition (Philip would in fact be the last king so crowned). Already stricken with paralysis, Louis himself could not be present at the ceremony. He died on 18 September 1180 in Paris and was buried

7416-434: The possibility of an earl who was virtually landless. Earl Ranulf had been the greatest landholder in England, but after two partitions in five years, the land granted to each co-heir was small. William de Forz , husband of the senior co-heir, argued that as a county palatine the earldom of Chester should not be partitioned, but this argument was rejected by the king's court. Ultimately, the king himself gained possession of all

7519-517: The post-restoration Japanese Imperial era . In the 7th century, the common Old English terms for nobility was eorl or eorlcund man . However, this was later replaced by the term thegn . In the 11th century, under Danish influence, the Old English title ealdorman became earl , from the Old Norse word jarl . Proto-Norse eril , or the later Old Norse jarl , came to signify

7622-539: The power of earls. He confiscated or demolished illegal castles. He reduced the number of earldoms by allowing them to die with their holders and did not create new ones. During his reign, "the title became a mark of rank, rather than a substantive office: the real power lay with the king's sheriffs and justices." The real power possessed by any individual earl in this period depended on the amount of land and wealth he possessed that could be translated into patronage and influence. The more land and resources concentrated in

7725-506: The process of indygenat , naturalisation. Somewhat similar to the native privileged class of nobles found in Poland, Hungary also had a class of Conditional nobles . As opposed to the plethora of hollow "gentry" counts, only a few countships ever were important in medieval Iberia ; most territory was firmly within the Reconquista kingdoms before counts could become important. However, during

7828-436: The project was abandoned. Louis decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle Raymond. Louis and the French army returned home in 1149. The expedition to the Holy Land came at a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor that led to the annulment of their marriage. Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if

7931-521: The province; hence, the comitatus might now only be a small region of the provincia . Thus, unlike England, the term county , which ultimately evolved from the Latin comitatus , was not historically used for Scotland's main political subdivisions. Sheriffs were introduced at a similar time to earls, but unlike England, where sheriffs were officers who implemented the decisions of the shire court, in Scotland they were specifically charged with upholding

8034-659: The purchaser of land designated "feudal" was ennobled by the noble seat that he held and became a conte . This practice ceased with the formal abolition of feudalism in the various principalities of early-19th century Italy, last of all in the Papal States . Poland was notable throughout its history for not granting titles of nobility. This was on the premise that one could only be born into nobility, outside rare exceptions. Instead, it conferred non-hereditary courtly or civic roles . The noble titles that were in use on its territory were mostly of foreign provenance and usually subject to

8137-547: The rank of a leader. The Norman -derived equivalent count (from Latin comes ) was not introduced following the Norman Conquest of England though countess was and is used for the female title. Geoffrey Hughes writes, "It is a likely speculation that the Norman French title 'Count' was abandoned in England in favour of the Germanic 'Earl' [...] precisely because of the uncomfortable phonetic proximity to cunt ". In

8240-453: The royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred. The Council of Beaugency found an exit clause, declaring that Louis and Eleanor were too closely related for their marriage to be legal, thus the marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152. The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment, but in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between Louis and Eleanor, with a decreasing likelihood that their marriage would produce

8343-517: The same time, Hugh Bigod was made earl of Norfolk . In February 1141, Stephen was captured at the Battle of Lincoln , and Empress Matilda elected "Lady of the English" in April. At this time, she created three earldoms for her own supporters. Her illegitimate brother Reginald de Dunstanville was made earl of Cornwall . Baldwin de Redvers was made earl of Devon , and William de Mohun , lord of Dunster ,

8446-651: The second son of Louis VI of France and Adelaide of Maurienne . The early education of the young Louis anticipated an ecclesiastical career. As a result, he became well learned and exceptionally devout, but his life course changed decisively after the accidental death of his older brother Philip in 1131, when Louis unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of France. In October 1131, his father had him anointed and crowned by Pope Innocent II in Reims Cathedral . He spent much of his youth in Saint-Denis , where he built

8549-443: The shire also limited the autonomy of the earls. They could not raise taxation, mint coins, issue charters , or hold their own courts (the shire courts that earls presided over were held in the king's name). F. W. Maitland wrote, "with the estates of the earls, we find it impossible to distinguish between private property and official property". He noted the existence of " manors of the shire" and "comital vills " that belonged to

8652-435: The tenure of earldorman Ælfhere), which he had held since 1007. Cnut gave Godwin the earldom of Wessex in 1018. Eventually Godwin was also granted the earldom of Kent . Thorkell vanished from the records after 1023, and Godwin became the leading earl. Earldoms were not permanent territorial divisions; kings could transfer shires from one earldom to another. The fact that there was no local government administration beyond

8755-461: The title of count ( greve ) is the highest rank of nobility used in the modern period. Some Danish/Dano-Norwegian countships were associated with fiefs , and these counts were known as "feudal counts" ( lensgreve ). They rank above ordinary (titular) counts, and their position in the Danish aristocracy as the highest-ranking noblemen is broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. With

8858-652: The title to their heirs—but not always. For instance, in Piast Poland , the position of komes was not hereditary, resembling the early Merovingian institution. The title had disappeared by the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and the office had been replaced by others. Only after the Partitions of Poland did the title of "count" resurface in the title hrabia , derived from the German Graf . In

8961-458: The waist of the new earl, emphasizing the fact that the earl's rights came from him. Earls still held influence and, as "companions of the king", generally acted in support of the king's power. They showed their own power prominently in 1327 when they deposed King Edward II . They would later do the same with other kings of whom they disapproved. In 1337 Edward III declared that he intended to create six new earldoms . The first Irish earldom

9064-709: The wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees . Louis was the second son of Louis VI of France and Adelaide of Maurienne , and was initially prepared for a career in the Church . Following the death of his older brother, Philip , in 1131, Louis became heir apparent to the French throne and was crowned as his father's co-ruler. In 1137, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine and shortly thereafter became sole king following his father's death. During his march, as part of

9167-452: Was signore , modeled on the French seigneur , used with the name of the fief . By the fourteenth century, conte and the Imperial title barone were virtually synonymous. Some titles of a count, according to the particulars of the patent, might be inherited by the eldest son of a Count. Younger brothers might be distinguished as "X dei conti di Y" ("X of the counts of Y"). However, if there

9270-496: Was a count . The definition and powers of French counts varied widely. Some counts were nearly independent rulers who gave only nominal loyalty to the King of France . In Normandy, counts were junior members of the Norman dynasty with responsibility for guarding border regions. In 1066, there were three Norman counts: Richard of Évreux , Robert of Eu , and Robert of Mortain . William

9373-412: Was a pairie , i.e. carried the exclusive rank of pair ; within the first (i.e. clerical) and second (noble) estates, the first three of the original twelve anciennes pairies were ducal, the next three comital comté-pairies : Later other countships (and duchies, even baronies) have been raised to this French peerage, but mostly as apanages (for members of the royal house) or for foreigners; after

9476-504: Was a trip to Toulouse in 1159 to aid Raymond V, Count of Toulouse , who had been attacked by Henry II: Louis entered into the city with a small escort, claiming to be visiting his sister, the countess. Henry declared that he could not attack the city while his liege lord was inside, and went home. In 1169, Louis was petitioned by the bishop of Le Puy to stop the Viscount of Polignac from attacking travelers through Auvergne . The viscount

9579-520: Was also often conferred by the monarch as an honorific title for special services rendered, without a feudal estate (countship, county) being attached, so it was merely a title, with or without a domain name attached to it. In the United Kingdom , the equivalent "Earl" can also be used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of a duke or marquess. In the Italian states , by contrast, all the sons of certain counts were little counts ( contini ). In Sweden there

9682-492: Was awarded in various forms by popes and Holy Roman Emperors since the Middle Ages, infrequently before the 14th century, and the pope continued to grant the comital and other noble titles even after 1870, it was largely discontinued in the mid 20th-century, on the accession of John XXIII . The Papacy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies might appoint counts palatine with no particular territorial fief. Until 1812 in some regions,

9785-454: Was besieged by Louis at Nonette and the county was turned into a prévôt . Louis' reign saw Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I press his claims to Arles , in southeastern France. When a papal schism broke out in 1159, Louis took the side of Pope Alexander III , the enemy of Frederick I, and after two comical failures of Frederick I to meet Louis at Saint-Jean-de-Losne (on 29 August and 22 September 1162), Louis definitely gave himself up to

9888-431: Was created the earl of Winchester in 1207. This was the first new hereditary earldom created since the reign of Stephen. An earldom could be dramatically impacted upon by multiple partitions. In 1232, Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester died childless. His lands were divided between his four sisters with the title going to the eldest's son, John of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon . John died in 1237, and once again

9991-518: Was delegated to represent the ruler. In the late Roman Empire , the Latin title comes denoted the high rank of various courtiers and provincial officials, either military or administrative. Before Anthemius became emperor in the West in 467, he was a military comes charged with strengthening defenses on the Danube frontier. In the Western Roman Empire , "count" came to indicate generically

10094-478: Was desperate for a son, he married Adela of Champagne just 5 weeks later. To counterbalance the advantage this would give the king of France, Henry II had the marriage of their children (Henry "the Young King" and Margaret) celebrated at once. Louis understood the danger of the growing Angevin power; however, through indecision and a lack of fiscal and military resources in comparison to Henry II, he failed to oppose Angevin hegemony effectively. One of his few successes

10197-569: Was in Essex), and therefore possessed no power in the county. An earldom along with its land was inherited generally according to primogeniture . If the only heirs were female, then the land would be partitioned equally between co-heirs with the eldest co-heir receiving the title. In 1204, Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester , died without children. His heirs were his sisters, Amice and Margaret. Amice's son, Simon de Montfort , succeeded as earl of Leicester, and Margaret's husband, Saer de Quincy ,

10300-533: Was made earl of Hereford , a territory formerly part of Sweyn's earldom. In 1053, Harold succeeded his father, and Ælfgar, son of Earl Leofric, became earl of East Anglia. A major reshuffle occurred after both Leofric and Ralf died in 1057. Ælfgar succeeded his father in Mercia, and Gyrth Godwinson took East Anglia. An earldom was created for Leofwine Godwinson out of the south-eastern shires belonging to Harold. In exchange, Harold received Ralf's earldom. In 1065,

10403-572: Was made earl of Somerset . Aubrey de Vere was made earl of Oxford in 1142. Sometime around 1143, Matilda's constable Patrick of Salisbury was made earl of Salisbury . During the Anarchy, earls took advantage of the power vacuum to assume Crown rights. Robert of Gloucester, Patrick of Salisbury, Robert of Leicester , and Henry of Northumbria all minted their own coinage. Earls and barons had also built adulterine castles (castles built without royal permission). It fell to Stephen's successor Henry II ( r.  1154–1189 ) to again curtail

10506-494: Was not hereditary. While sons of earls could expect to inherit their father's office, this was not automatic. Only the king could make someone an earl. Initially, Cnut kept Wessex for himself and divided the rest of England into three earldoms. He gave the earldom of East Anglia to Thorkell the Tall and the earldom of Northumbria to Eric . Eadric Streona retained the earldom of Mercia (having been unified with western Mercia in

10609-530: Was the Earl of Ulster , granted to the Norman knight Hugh de Lacy in 1205 by John , King of England and Lord of Ireland . Other early earldoms were Earl of Carrick (1315), Earl of Kildare (1316), Earl of Desmond (1329) and Earl of Waterford (1446, extant). After the Tudor reconquest of Ireland (1530s–1603), native Irish kings and clan chiefs were encouraged to submit to the English king (now also King of Ireland ) and were, in return, granted noble titles in

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