Earl
An Earl as a member of the British peerage ranks below a Marquess and above a Viscount. A British Earl equates in rank to a continental Count. The wife of an Earl bears the rank of Countess.
Etymology
The word "earl" derives from Middle English "erl" meaning warrior, nobleman, equivalent to the jarl in Old Norse. It remains unclear whether there exists connection by etymology to the Anglo-Saxon term "Ealdorman" which translates literally as "Elder", "Senior", and refers to a chief counselor of the realm. That term survives in modern English as "Alderman", a councilman or representative in local government or a local church governing body.
History
England
Earls originally functioned essentially as royal governors. The English kings found it dangerous to give additional power to already powerful aristocrats, and so gradually sheriffs assumed the governing role. The details of this transition remain obscure, since earls in more peripheral areas (such as the Scottish and Welsh marches and Cornwall) retained some viceregal powers long after other earls had lost them. The loosening of central authority during the Anarchy also complicates any smooth description of the changeover.
A loose connection between earls and shires remained for a long time after authority had moved over to the sheriffs. An official defining characteristic of an earl consisted of the receipt of the "third penny" of the revenues of justice of a shire. Thus every earl had an association with some shire, and very often a new creation of an earldom would take place in favor of the county where the new earl already had large estates and local influence.
Also, due to the this association of earls and shires, the medieval practice could remain somewhat loose regarding the precise name used: no confusion could arise by calling someone earl of a shire, earl of the county town of the shire, or earl of some other prominent place in the shire; these all implied the same. Thus we find the "earl of Shrewsbury" (Shropshire), "earl of Arundel" or "earl of Chichester" (Sussex), "earl of Winchester" (Hampshire), etc. In a few cases the earl was traditionally addressed by his family name, e.g. the "earl Warenne" (in this case the practice may have arisen because these earls had little or no property in Surrey, their official county).
As this last case illustrates, an earl did not always have an intimate association with "his" county. Another example comes from the earls of Oxford, whose property largely lay in Essex. They became earls of Oxford because earls of Essex and of the other nearby shires already existed.
Eventually the connection between an earl and a shire disappeared, so that in the present day a number of earldoms take their names from towns, mountains, or simply surnames. Nevertheless, some consider that the earldoms named for counties (or county towns) retain more prestige.
Scotland
Some major earldoms in Scotland originated from the office of mormaor: others developed later by analogy.
Forms of Address
An Earl has the title Earl of X when the title originates from a placename, or Earl X when the title comes from a surname. In either case, the Earl is referred to as Lord X, and his wife as Lady X. Countesses who hold earldoms in their own right also use Lady X, but their husbands do not receive any titles.
The eldest son of an Earl generally bears the courtesy title of Viscount or Lord; one refers to a younger son of an earl as the Honourable [Forename] [Surname] and to a daughter as Lady [Forename] [Surname] (Lady Diana Spencer furnishing a well-known example).
See also
Referenced By
1400 | Bertrand Russell | Birger Jarl | Bridgnorth | Charles Cornwallis | Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis | Charles Cornwallis, 2nd Earl Cornwallis | Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester | Claydon House | Cornwallis | Coronation (United Kingdom) | Covent Garden | Covent Garden, London, England | Earl Auckland | Earl Ferrers | Earl of Auckland | Earl of Holland | Earl of Shrewsbury | Earl of Waterford | Feudal rank | Firby | General Cornwallis | George Eden | George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland | George Eden, Earl of Auckland | George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax | Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster | Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland | Hierarchy of the demons | Horace (disambiguation) | Jarl | List of Earls in order of precedence | List of Notable people with the name Horace | Lord | Lord Cornwallis | Lord Snooty | Lucy Skaer | Marchioness | Marquess | Marquis | Michael Edward Hicks Beach, 1st Earl St Aldwyn | Michael Hicks-Beach | Michael Hicks-Beach, 1st Earl St Aldwyn | Michael Hicks Beach | Nobility | Noble | Nobleman | Nobles | Noblewoman | Peerage of England | Peerage of Great Britain | Peerage of Scotland | Ranks of nobility and peerage | Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry | Royal and Noble | Royal and noble styles | Rufus Isaacs | Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading | Shakespearean Sonnets | Shakespearean sonnet | Thomas Cochrane | Title | Title of nobility | Titles of nobility | William E. Gladstone | William Ewart Gladstone | William Gladstone | William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth
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