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This page is about the style title of nobility; for the baseball term, see count (baseball).
Countess redirects here. For other meanings see Countess (disambiguation).
For count as the result of counting, see number.
For the Muppet character, see Count von Count.

A count is a nobleman in most European countries, equivalent in rank to a British earl, whose wife is also still a "countess" (for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term). The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin comes— in its accusative comitem— meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The German title Graf and its cognates may be based via their Latin form grafio on the Greek verb graphein to write.

Definition

Main article: Comes.
In the late Roman Empire, the Latin title comes meaning (imperial) 'companion' denoted the high rank of various courtiers and provincial officials, either military or administrative: before Anthemius was made emperor in the West in 467, he was military comes charged with strengthening defenses on the Danube frontier *.

Military counts in the Late Empire and the Germanic successor kingdoms were often appointed by a dux and later by a king. From the start the count was in military charge, not of a roving warband, but settled in a locality, a countship, his main rival for power being the bishop, whose diocese was often coterminous.

In many Germanic and Frankish kingdoms in the early Middle Ages, the count might also be a count palatine, whose authority derived directly from the royal household, the "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 the imperial lands, then of comes sacrarum largitionum (concerned with the strictly monetary fiscal matters of the realm) *,

The position of comes was originally not hereditary, but by developing a local power base, many counts were able to make it a hereditary title—though 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 replaced with other institutions. Only after the Partitions of Poland did the title of "count" re-surface in the German-derived title hrabia.

  • The title of Count was also often conferred by the Monarch as an honorific title for special services rendered, without an actual principality (countship), just a title, with or without a merely domanial estate. In the UK, the equivalent Earl is often a courtesy title for the eldest son of a duke. In the United Kingdom stringent rules apply, often a future heir has a lower ranking courtesy title; in Italy, by contrast, all the sons of certain counts are counts (contini).

Comital Titles in different European languages

The following lists are originally based on a Glossary on Heraldica.org by Alexander Krischnig. The male form is followed by the female, and when available, by the territorial circonscription

Etymological derivations from the Latin Comes

Language Male Title Female Title/Spouse territory
English Earl conferred by a British monarch/ Count applying to all other monarchies Countess (even where Earl applies) Earldom for an Earl/ Countship or county for a count, but the last is also, and indeed rather, in Anglo-Saxon countries an administrative district
Latin (feudal jargon, not classical) Comes Comitissa Comitatus
Hebrew Rozen (רוזן) Rozenet (רוזנת)
Albanian Kont Konthesë
Irish Cuntas (alongside Iarla : Earl) /Cuntaois
French Comte - cfr. the variation ?Comtor Comtesse Comté
Greek Κόμης (Komes) Κόμισσα (Komissa) Κομητεία (Kometeia)
Maltese Konti Kontessa
Monegasque Conte Contessa
Italian Conte Contessa Contea, Contado, Comitato
Portuguese Conde Condessa Condado
Romanian Conte Contesă Comitat
Rhaeto-Romanic Cont Contessa
Spanish Conde Condesa Condado

Etymological parallels of the German Graf (some unclear)

Language Male Title Female Title/Spouse territory
Estonian Krahv Krahvinna Krahvkond
Belorussian Graf Grafinya
Bulgarian Граф (Graf) Графиня (Grafinya) Графство (Grafstvo)
Croatian grof grofica grofovija
Czech hrabě hraběnka hrabství
Danish Greve Grevinde Grevskab
Dutch Graaf Gravin Graafschap
Latvian Grāfs Grāfiene
German Graf Gräfin Grafschaft
Finnish Kreivi Kreivitär Kreivikunta
Hungarian (Magyar) gróf grófnő grófság
Icelandic Greifi Greifynja
Lithuanian Grafas Grafienė
Luxemburgish Grof Gräfin
Macedonian Grof Grofina
Polish Hrabia Hrabina Hrabstwo
Norwegian Greve Grevinne Grevskap
Russian Graf Grafinya
Serbian Grof Grofica Grofovija
Slovak gróf grófka grófstvo
Slovene Grof Grofica
Swedish Greve Grevinna Grevskap
Ukrainian Graf Grafinya

Compound and Related titles

Apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily to remain there.
  • Dauphin (anglicized Dolphin, possibly an etymological match; Latin Delphinus) was a multiple (though rare) comital title in southern France before it became (informally) the courtesy title of the heir to the French royal crown, in chief of the province still known as the région Dauphiné
  • Archcount is a very rare title, etymologically analogous to archduke, apparently never recognized officially, used by or for
    • the count of Flanders (an original pairie of the French realm in present Belgium, very rich, once expected to be raised to the rank of kingdom); the informal, rather descriptive use on account of the countship's de facto importance is rather analogous to the unofficial epithet Grand Duc de l'Occident (before Grand duke became a formal title) for the even wealthier Duke of Burgundy
    • at least one Count of Burgundy (i.e. Freigraf of Franche-Comté)
  • In German kingdoms, the title Graf was combined with the word for the jurisdiction or domain the nobleman was holding as a fief and/or as a conferred or inherited jurisdiction, such as "Markgraf" (Margrave - see also Marquess), "Landgraf" ('landgrave'), "Freigraf" ('free count'), "Burggraf" ('Burgrave', where burg signifies castle - see also Viscount), Pfalzgraf (see (Count) Palatine).
  • These are not to be confused with various minor office titles also containing the word -graf (in German, -grave in French and English, -graaf in Dutch) rather in its original sense (its medieval Latin original, GRAFIO, stems from the Greek verb graphein, to draw or to write : a civil servant, as the Frankish Comites were before they gradually managed to obtain hereditary succession) in various offices and sinecures which are not intrinsically linked to nobility of feudality, such as the Dutch titles Pluimgraaf (a court sinecure, so usually held by nobles courtiers, may even be rendered hereditary) and Dijkgraaf (to the present, in the Low Countries, a managing official in the local or regional administration of water household trough dykes, ditches, controls etcetera; also in German Deichgraf, synonymous with Deichhauptmann, 'dike captain').

Lists of Countships

Territory of today's France

West- Francia proper
Since King 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 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 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:

Parts of today's France long within other kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire

See also above for parts of present France

In Germany
See also Graf for various comital and related titles; especially those actually reigning over a principality that can be rendered as countship: Gefürsteter Graf, Landgraf, Reichsgraf; compare Markgraf, Pfalzgraf

In Italy
The title of Conte is very prolific on the peninsula, and modern counts occupy the position in rural society comparable to an English squire, members of rural gentry. In the 11th century however, conti like the Count of Savoia or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans, was signore, modelled on the French seigneur, used with the name of the fief. By the 14th century, conte and the Imperial title barone were virtually synonymous, but some titles of count, according to the particulars of the patent, might be inherited, unlike other Italian titles, by all the male heirs. Other younger brothers might be distinguished as "X dei conti de Y" ("X of the counts of Y"). The Papacy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies might appoint counts palatine with no particular territorial fief. Until 1812 in some regions, 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.

Many Italian counts left their mark on Italian history as individuals, yet only a few contadi (countships; the word contadini for its inhabitants was even used pejoratively like 'peasant', as most were really minor rural lordships) were politically significant principalities, notably :

=Roman count
= Count is one of the nobiliary titles granted by the Pope of Rome as temporal sovereign (of the Papal State), and is thus often known as Roman count. The title, which can be for life or hereditary, has been awarded since the Middle ages, mostly to foreigners, and the pope continued to grant titles even after 1870 and the loss of most of the Papal territory. By the Lateran Accord of 1929, the Italian government recognized and confirmed the pope's power to grant titles, and the titles granted by the Pope were considered equivalent to Italian titles, contrary to which it had never been abolished. However, the title has not been granted since Pope Pius XII.

In Austria
The principalities tended to start out as margraviate and/or (promoted to) duchy, and became nominal archduchies within the Habsburg dynasty; noteworthy are:
  • Count of Tirol
  • Count of Cilli
  • Count of Schaumburg

In the Low Countries
Apart from various small ones, significant were :

In other continental European countries

In Switzerland

In Iberia
As opposed to the plethora of hollow 'gentry' counts, only a few countships ever were important; most territory was firmly within the reconquista kingdoms before counts could become important:

Crusader states

Equivalents

The word Count is also used, somewhat conventionally, to render in English (as in other western languages) various ranks and offices in non-christian -mainly oriental- cultures, such as that of Haku (third of five peerage ranks) in Japan since the Shogunate.

See also

Sources, References and External links

(incomplete)

Comte | Graf | Krahv | Conde | Comte | Gróf | Conte | Graaf | Greve | Conde | Greve | 伯爵 | Comes | hrabia

Feudalism | Late Antiquity | Middle Ages | Noble titles | Titles

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Count".

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