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Earl

Earl was known in Norman days as a Comitatus, Earl, and the holder as a Comea, or Count, but in course of time the old titles of "Earl" and "earldom," which had been in use among the Saxons long before the Conquest, superseded the foreign terms. Earl, a title and rank of nobility (corresponding to Lat. comes; Fr. comte), now the third in order of the British peerage, and accordingly intervening between marquess and viscount.

The nature of a modern earldom is readily understood, since it is a rank and dignity of nobility which, while it confers no official power or authority, is inalienable, indivisible, and descends in regular succession to all the heirs under the limitation in the grant until, on their failure, it becomes extinct. The title is of Scandinavian origin, and first appears in England under Canute as jarl, which was englished as eorl. Like the ealdorman, whose place he took, the eorl was a great royal officer, who might be set over several counties, but who presided separately in the county court of each with the bishop of the diocese.

This is the most ancient order of British nobility. In the Saxon times the grandees of the kingdom, under the name of Huhlonnan (which literally has the same meaning as the Latin Senior or Senator), had shires or other territories committed to their rulej and were sometimes from these governments denominated Shire- men, sometimes, from their military commands, described by the Saxon word fferetoya, and in Latin documents were styled Princeps or Dux. These names seem all to be synonymous and indicative of a rank inferior to the Etheling or Princes of the blood, and superior to the Thane. With the Danes came in the title of Eorle, used in the parts subject to their power in a sense equivalent to this of Ealdorman, but admitted into the Saxon dominions with reference to the higher dignity of the King's immediate relatives; from whom, on the sway of Canute extending all over England, it descended to the same persons who had previously borne the title of Ealdorman. This honour, with the authority and reverence attached to it, was conferred for life, or with an estate of inheritance at the King's pleasure ; but in those unsettled times no evidence remains of any long succession in the same family.

Upon the Norman conquest, the territorial possessions of the Saxon nobility were declared forfeited upon perpetually recurring pretences, and transferred to the Norman followers of the Conqueror ; to whom, also, other fiefs were dispensed under the new denomination ofCount or Countee : this, however, was soon again supplanted by the ancient title of Earl ; though, singularly enough, the alien word that would not attach itself to the persons of its Norman owners, took root in their English shires, which from thence are called Counties to this day.

The Norman Earl, to which rank the most illustrious names of early history belong, was invested with the third penny out of the Sheriff s court of the county ; and there is some trace of his Saxon predecessor having also enjoyed it. Upon the increase of their number in latter times, this revenue ceased ; and it was usual to assign to them, in the patent of creation, in lieu of it, for the support of their dignity, a certain sum, frequently twenty pounds, out of the profits of the county, which also is obsolete ; indeed the Earls have become so numerous that they now usually derive their titles from a town or village, or from a family name, instead of a County, as formerly.

Earl is the oldest title and rank of English nobles, and was the highest until the year 1337, when the Black Prince was created duke of Cornwall by Edward III. The earliest known charter of an Earl was that granted to Geoffrey de Mandeville by the Empress Maud, in the time of King Stephen, and by that charter Maud granted the earldom to him and his heirs after him hereditarily, in these terms: - "Ego Matilda filia Regis Henrici et Anglorum doiniua do et concedo Gaufredo de Magnavilla pro servitio suo et heredibus suis post eum hereditabiliter ut sit Conies de Essexia et habeat tertium denarium vicecomitatus do placitis sicut Comes habere debet in Comitatu suo," &c. (Selden's Titles of Honour, 2nd ed. p. 647.)

From the Conquest downwards for several centuries the usual mode of creating an earldom was by oral grant or declaration of the sovereign, accompanied by the ceremony of girding with a sword by way of investiture. The grant, in early days, very commonly conferred the right to the third penny of the Pleas of the county (infra, p. 34), and generally there was a charter recording, directly or indirectly, the grant and the investiture. After Edward II, and until the end of the reign of Richard III, this oral declaration and investiture sometimes took place in Parliament. An earldom was sometimes created by Act of Parliament in the form of n Royal Charter, expressed to be made with the assent of Parliament or ratified by Parliament. The original "seven earldoms" represented seven provinces, each of which was under a "mormaer." The oldest earldom not merged in a higher title is that of Shrewsbury (1442), the next in seniority being Derby (1485), and Huntingdon (1529). These three have been known as "the catskin earls," a term of uncertain origin.

An earl is "Right Honourable," and is styled "My Lord." His eldest son bears his father's "second title," and therefore, that second title being in most cases a viscounty, he generally is styled "Viscount"; where, as with Devon and Huntingdon, there is no second title, one may be assumed for convenience; under all circumstances, however, the eldest son of an earl takes precedence immediately after the viscounts. The younger sons of earls are "Honourable," but all their daughters are "Ladies." In formal documents and instruments, the sovereign, when addressing or making mention of any peer of the degree of an earl, usually designates him "trusty and well-beloved cousin."

The robes of an Earl are differenced from those of a Duke by having three instead of four rows of ermine ; in other respects they are precisely the same. His cap, also, is the same as a Duke's. His coronet is a circlet of gold enriched with jewels, from which rise eight points surmounted by as many balls of gold, and between them eight small strawberry-leaves close to the upper rim of the circlet.- See the engraving above. The eldest son, though in law only an Esquire, takes by courtesy his father's second title. The daughters have by courtesy the title of Ladies before their Christian and surnames, and, as well as the eldest son, are styled Right Honourable. The younger sons are styled Honourable.

The Earls and Barons, as they are the most ancient, have also always been the most numerous Orders of the Peerage ; though in England, by around 1900, the number of Barons nearly doubles that of Earls. In Ireland the number is nearly equal. But in Scotland, where the title is known to have existed almost four hundred years before any other parliamentary honour is recognised by official documents, this Order is more numerous than all the other degrees of the Peerage collectively.

Count

Count, Countess (Latin Comas, Comitíssa), in the peerage of Great Britain and Ireland the Continental, in its highest and most dignified acceptation, is represented by earl, an earl's wife, however, being styled countess. In the times of the Roman Commonwealth, personages of different degrees of rank, who in various capacities officially accompanied the proconsuls and proprietor» into the provinces, bore the common designation of comites, either a comitando or a commeande. At ? later period, the comites, as personal companions and counsellors of the prince, whose name they always added to the title of their office, became lords of the palace, whence the origin of their style as counts palatine. At a considerably later era, this same title implied princely rank, dignity, and power enjoyed by the bearer under a supreme imperial sovereign. By Constantine the title comes was first established as a definite dignity ; but this same title, within a shört time after its first formal establishment, was conferred indiscriminately upon various classes of public officers, of whom a long fist, specifying the capacity in which each one served, is given by Du Gange.

After the fall of the Eastern empire the governors of provinces and cities who commanded in war and during peace presided over the administration of the laws retained the titles of duces and comités (dukes and counts) ; occasionally also the distinction between these titles failed to be observed, and some counts became governors of provinces. Under the last king of the second royal dynasty of France, the dignity of the limits of the highest rank was rendered hereditary, when they even aspired to independent sovereignty.

From the inability of Hugh Capet to maintain the supremacy of the crown against their encroachments, these great peers assigned to his reign their first assumption of coronets with their arms, to denote their enjoyment of sovereign powor in their particular counties or territories. In after times, the dignity of count, hereditary in the male line, was granted by a sovereign upon his erecting a territory into a county, with a reserve of sovereignty and jurisdiction to the Crown, and aiso with reversion to the Crown in default of heirs male. By the end of the 19th Century, from the custom of styling all the sons of a count also counts, the titular bearers of this designation on the Continent were very numerous, while their rank is little more than nominal. In Germany the equivalent for count ws Graf, and the several orders of these German counts are distinguished by the formation of compound titles, as "landgraves," "palsgraves," &c.