A ''Grafschaft'' was originally the name given to the administrative area in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

over which a count, or ''

Graf (feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is "coun ...

'', presided as

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

. It is often, therefore, translated as 'county'. The term has survived as a placename in German-speaking countries, for example, in Germany and in Switzerland. According to the early Saxon legal document, the '' Sachsenspiegel'' which dates to around 1230, the ''Graf'' or count is a special judge (''Sonderrichter'') who, in the name of the king may preside at a juridical court, in certain cases, under the

king's ban {{Short description, Exercise of royal jurisdiction ''Königsbann'', literally king's ban ( lat, bannus, more rarely ''bannum'', from the OHG: ''ban''), was the exercise of royal jurisdiction in the Holy Roman Empire. A specific ban (German: ''Ban ...

, i.e. king's authority. The type of 'ban' cases derived from the nature of the kingdom: From that followed the exclusive responsibility of the king – and thus the count – to deal with allegations against the nobility. As part of the court "under the king's ban" there was a bench of jurors made up of the nobility, the ''Schöffenbarfreien''. The area of the county was roughly that of modern rural German districts or counties (''

Landkreise In all German states, except for the three city states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the (official term in all but two states) or (official term in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia ...

n''). On the emergence of states in the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...

, the acquisition and thus mediatisation of the counties by the territorial princes played an important role. The beginning of the late medieval trend towards large territorial lordships in the 14th century was simultaneously the end of the ''Grafschaft'' of the late and high Middle Ages. In 1521 there were 144 imperially immediate ''Grafschaften'' in the

, the so-called imperial counties or ''Reichsgrafschaften''. Several rural ''

Landkreis In all German states, except for the three city states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the (official term in all but two states) or (official term in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia ...

e'' in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, whose territorial history goes back to the ''Grafschaften'', bear this title in their official names; after the municipal reforms at the end of the 1970s, only the county of Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim retains the name. Not to be confused with ''Grafschaften'' are the '' Markgrafschaften'' ("margraviates"), '' Pfalzgrafschaften'' ("counties palatine") or '' Landgrafschaften'' ("landgraviates"), which had the same status as

duchies A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a medieval country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between " ...

. The present-day German federal states of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

and

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

were once margraviates;

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

and

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

were landgraviates.

External links

* {{Authority control Subdivisions of the Holy Roman Empire

See also

External links