Counts Of Holland Arms

Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1992. p. 73. . The etymologically related English term " county" denoted the territories associated with the countship.

Definition

The word ''count'' came into English from the French ''comte'', itself from Latin '' comes''—in its accusative ''comitem''—meaning “companion”, and later “companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor”. The adjective form of the word is " comital". The British and Irish equivalent is an earl (whose wife is a "countess", for lack of an English term).
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 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).

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 not in charge of a roving warband, but settled in a locality, known as a county; his main rival for power was the bishop, whose diocese was sometimes coterminous with the county.

In the Frankish kingdoms in the early Middle Ages, a 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 as ''comes sacrarum largitionum'' ("count of the sacred doles"), concerned with the finances of the realm.

The position of ''comes'' was originally not hereditary. The position of count was regarded as an administrative official dependent on the king, until the process of allodialisation during the 9th century in which it became private possessions of noble families. By virtue of their large estates, many counts could pass 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''.

Land attached to title

Originally, with 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 Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, C. W. Onions (Ed.), 1966, Oxford University Press 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 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 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.

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 circumscription.

Etymological derivations from the Latin

Etymological parallels with the German (some approximate)

Compound and related titles

Apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily permanently.
* (English: ''Dolphin''; es, Delfín, links=no; it, Delfino, links=no; pt, Delfim, links=no; la, Delphinus) was a multiple (though rare) comital title in southern France, used by the Dauphins of Vienne and Auvergne, before 1349 when it became the title of the heir to the French throne. The Dauphin was the lord of the province still known as the .
* "Count-Duke" is a rare title used in Spain, notably by Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares. He had inherited the title of count of Olivares, but when created Duke of Sanlucar la Mayor by King Philip IV of Spain he begged permission to preserve his inherited title in combination with the new honour—according to a practice almost unique in Spanish history; logically the incumbent ranks as Duke (higher than Count) just as he would when simply concatenating both titles.
* 'Count-Baron' is a rare title used in Portugal, notably by Dom , 7th Baron of Alvito, who received the title of Count of Oriola in 1653 from King John IV of Portugal. His palace in Lisbon still exists, located in a square named after him ().
* Archcount is a very rare title, etymologically analogous to archduke, apparently never recognized officially, used by or for:
** the count of Flanders (an original 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 (before Grand duke became a formal title) for the even wealthier Duke of Burgundy
** at least one Count of Burgundy (i.e. of )
* In German kingdoms, the title was combined with the word for the jurisdiction or domain the nobleman was holding as a fief or as a conferred or inherited jurisdiction, such as (see also Marquess), , ("free count"), , where signifies castle; see also Viscount, (translated both as "Count Palatine" and, historically, as "Palsgrave"), ("Raugrave", see " Graf", and (), where signifies a large forest) (from Latin ''nemus'' = grove).
* The German and Dutch ( la, grafio) stem from the Byzantine-Greek meaning "he who calls a meeting .e. the courttogether").
* The Ottoman military title of was used in Montenegro and Serbia as a lesser noble title with the equivalent rank of a Count.
* These titles are not to be confused with various minor administrative titles containing the word in various offices which are not linked to feudal nobility, such as the Dutch titles (a court sinecure, so usually held by noble courtiers, may even be rendered hereditary) and (to the present, in the Low Countries, a manager in the local or regional administration of watercourses through dykes, ditches, controls etc.; also in German , synonymous with , "dike captain").

Lists of countships

Territory of today's France

Kingdom of the Western Franks

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 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