Count

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.

Contents

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 [link].

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) [link],

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

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:

bishop-counts of Beauvais (in Picardy)
bishop-counts of Châlons (in Champagne)
bishop-counts of Noyon (in Picardy)
Count of Toulouse, until united to the crown in 1271 by marriage
Count of Flanders (Flandres in French), which is in the Low countries and was confiscated in 1299, though returned in 1303
Count of Champagne, until united to the crown (in 1316 by marriage, conclusively in 1361)

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
Freigraf ('free count') of Burgundy (i.e present Franche-Comté
Count of Provence

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 :

Norman Count of Apulia
Count of Savoy, later Duke (also partly in France and in Switzerland)
Count of Asti
Count of Montferrat (Monferrato)
Count of Montefeltro
Count of Tusculum

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 present Belgium :
* Count of Flanders (Vlaanderen in local Dutch), , but only the small part east of the river Schelde remained within the empire; the far larger west, an original French comté-pairie became part of the French realm
* Count of Hainaut
* Count of Namur, later a margraviate
* Count of Leuven (Louvain) soon became the Duke of Brabant
in the present Dutch kingdom of the Netherlands:
* Count of Holland
* Count of Zeeland
* Count of Zutphen

In other continental European countries

In Switzerland

Count of Neuenburg
Count of Toggenburg
Count of Kyburg
Count of Salis-Soglio

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:

Portugal itself started as a countship, but was promoted to kingdom
in Spain, no countships of wider importance, except in the former Spanish march
* Count of Barcelona - it became integrated in the kingdom of Aragon, which became one of the two main components of the Spanish realm
* Count of Aragon
* Count of Castile
* Count of Galicia
* Count of Lara
* Count Cassius, progenitor of the Banu Qasi
* Count of Urgel
* the other counts in Catalonia were much smaller and got absorbed into Barcelona/Aragon: Cerdanya, Ampurias, Conflans, Pallars, Rousillon (in present France)

Crusader states

Count of Edessa
Count of Tripoli (1102-1288)

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.

Sources, References and External links

Look up in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

(incomplete)

[Heraldica.org - here the French peerage]
[Italian Titles of Nobility]
Pauly-Wissowa (in German)
[Webster's 1828 Dictionary]
Labarre de Raillicourt: Les Comtes Romains
Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)

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