Earl was the Anglo-Saxon form and jarl the Scandinavian form of a title meaning "chieftain" and referring especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a king's stead. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke (hertig/hertug); in later medieval Britain, it became the equivalent of the continental count (in the earlier period, it was more akin to duke). A duke is a member of the Nobility, historically of highest rank below the Sovereign, and historically controlled a Duchy or a Dukedom A count is a Nobleman in European countries The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin A duke is a member of the Nobility, historically of highest rank below the Sovereign, and historically controlled a Duchy or a Dukedom
In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Peerage is a system of Titles of Nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. A marquess (ˈmɑrkwɪs or marquis (/mɑrˈkiː/ is a Nobleman of hereditary rank in various European monarchies and some of their colonies A viscount ( VAI-count is a member of the European Nobility whose comital title ranks usually as in the British peerage, above a The English never developed a feminine form of earl; the wife of an earl is styled countess (the continental equivalent). English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States A count is a Nobleman in European countries The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin
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Etymology
- See also: Ríg for the account in Norse mythology of the warrior Jarl or Ríg-Jarl presented as the ancestor of the class of warrior-nobles. Norse mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and Legends of the Scandinavian peoples including those who settled on Iceland
According to Procopius, the Heruli, after having raided the European continent for several generations, returned to Scandinavia in 512 AD as a result of military defeats. Procopius of Caesarea ( Προκόπιος ο Καισαρεύς, c The Heruli (spelled variously in Latin and Greek) were a nomadic Germanic people, who were subjugated by the Ostrogoths Huns and As their old territory was now occupied by the Danes, they settled next to the Geats in present-day Sweden. Geats, Geatas, Gautar, Goths, Gotar, Gøtar, Götar were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting Götaland While the Proto-Norse word for this mysterious tribe may have been erilaz, which is etymologically near "jarl" and "earl", and it has often been suggested they introduced the runes in Scandinavia[1], no elaborate theory exists to explain how the word came to be used as a title. Proto-Norse (also Proto-Scandinavian, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic, Old Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic Erilaz is a Migration period Proto-Norse word attested on various Elder Futhark inscriptions which has often been interpreted to mean "magician" Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time Arguably, their knowledge in interpreting runes also meant they were gifted in martial arts and, as they gradually integrated, eril or jarl instead came to signify the rank of a leader. [2]
The Norman-derived equivalent "count" was not introduced following the Norman Conquest of England though "countess" was and is used for the female title. Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. The northern Norman can be classified in the septentrional Oil languages with Picard and As Geoffrey Hughes writes, "It is a likely speculation that the Norman French title 'Count' was abandoned in England in favour of the Germanic 'Earl' […] precisely because of the uncomfortable phonetic proximity to cunt".
The Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh words for "count" or "earl" (iarla in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, iarll in Welsh) are all descended from English "earl" or one of its ancestors. Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic
Earls in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth
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, he is referred to as Lord [X], and his wife as Lady [X]. A countess who holds an earldom in her own right also uses Lady [X], but her husband does not have a title (unless he has one in his own right).
The eldest son of an earl, though not himself a peer, is entitled to use a courtesy title, usually the highest of his father's lesser titles (if any); younger sons are styled The Honourable [Forename] [Surname], and daughters The Lady [Forename] [Surname] (Lady Diana Spencer being a well-known example). The Peerage is a system of Titles of Nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. A courtesy title is a form of address in systems of Nobility used by children former wives and other close relatives of a peer.
England
Changing power of English earls
In Anglo-Saxon England, earls had authority over their own regions and right of judgement in provincial courts, as delegated by the king. The History of Anglo-Saxon England covers the history of Early medieval England from the end of Roman Britain and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland They collected fines and taxes and in return received a "third penny", one-third of the money they collected. In wartime they led the king's armies. Some shires were grouped together into larger units known as earldoms, headed by an ealdorman or earl. A shire is an Administrative division of Great Britain and Australia. Under Edward the Confessor earldoms like Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria — names that represented earlier independent kingdoms — were much larger than any shire. King Edward the Confessor (c 1003 &ndash 5 January 1066 son of Ethelred the Unready, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon King of England and the last
Earls originally functioned essentially as royal governors. Though the title of Earl was nominally equal to the continental count, unlike them earls were not de facto rulers in their own right. A count is a Nobleman in European countries The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin
After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror tried to rule England using the traditional system but eventually modified it to his own liking. William I of England ( 1027 His reign which brought Norman culture to England had an enormous impact on the subsequent course of England in the Middle Ages Shires became the largest secular subdivision in England and earldoms disappeared. The Normans did create new earls like those of Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire but they were associated with only a single shire at most. There was no longer any administrative layer larger than the shire, and shires became "counties". Earls no longer aided in tax collection or made decisions in country courts and their numbers were small.
King Stephen increased the number of earls to reward those loyal to him in his war with his cousin Empress Matilda. Stephen often referred to in history as Stephen of Blois (c 1096 &ndash 25 October, 1154) was the last Norman King of England Matilda of England (sometimes Maud or Maude; 7 February 1102 &ndash 10 September 1167 was the daughter and dispossessed Heir of Henry I of England He gave some earls the right to hold royal castles or control the sheriff and soon other earls assumed these rights themselves. SHERIFF is a telecom fraud detection and management system originally developed by BT and MCI. By the end of his reign, some earls held courts of their own and even minted their own coins, against the wishes of the king.
It fell to Stephen's successor Henry II to again curtail the power of earls. He took back the control of royal castles and even demolished castles that earls had built for themselves. He did not create new earls or earldoms. No earl was allowed to remain independent of royal control.
The English kings had found it dangerous to give additional power to an already powerful aristocracy, so gradually sheriffs assumed the governing role. Power is a measure of a person's ability to control the environment around them including the behavior of other people Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations SHERIFF is a telecom fraud detection and management system originally developed by BT and MCI. 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. Mark from the Old English mearc and march (or various plural forms of these words derived from the Frankish word marka ("boundary" Cornwall ( Kernow ˈkɛɹnɔʊ is the most southwesterly county of England, on the Peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar The loosening of central authority during the Anarchy also complicates any smooth description of the changeover. The Anarchy or The Nineteen Year Winter refers to a period of English history during the reign ( 1135 &ndash 1154) of the Norman King
By the 13th century, earls had a social rank just below the king and princes, but were not necessarily more powerful or wealthier than other noblemen. The only way to become an earl was to inherit the title or marry into one - and the king reserved a right to prevent the transfer of the title. By the 14th century, creating an earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around the waist of the new earl, emphasizing the fact that the earl's rights came from him.
Earls still held influence and as "companions of the king", were regarded as supporters of the king's power. They showed that power for the first time in 1327 when they deposed Edward II. For the play see Edward II (play. For the film see Edward II (film. They would later do the same with other kings they disapproved of. Still, the number of earls remained the same until 1337 when Edward III declared that he intended to create six new earldoms. Edward III (13 November 1312 &ndash 21 June 1377 was one of the most successful English monarchs of the Middle Ages.
Earls, land and titles
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 still consisted of the receipt of the "third penny", one-third of the revenues of justice of a shire, that later became a fixed sum. Thus every earl had an association with some shire, and very often a new creation of an earldom would take place in favour of the county where the new earl already had large estates and local influence.
Also, due to the association of earls and shires, the mediæval 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. So there were the "earl of Shrewsbury" (Shropshire), "earl of Arundel", "earl of Chichester" (Sussex), "earl of Winchester" (Hampshire), "John of Earle" (Belgian) 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). Thus 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. Oxford is currently bidding for the 2010 Wikimania Conference Oxford () is a city, and the County town of Oxfordshire, Essex is a county in the East of England. The County town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common 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 after counties (or county towns) retain more prestige.
Scotland
Some major earldoms in Scotland originated from the office of mormaer; others developed later by analogy. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The title of Mormaer designates a regional or provincial ruler in the Medieval Kingdom of the Scots.
Coronet
A British Earl is entitled to a coronet bearing eight strawberry leaves (four visible) and eight silver balls (or pearls) around the rim (five visible). The actual coronet is mostly worn on certain ceremonial occasions, but an Earl can bear his coronet of rank on his coat of arms above the shield.
Scandinavia
Norway
In mediæval Norway, the title of jarl was the highest rank below the king himself. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The jarl was the only one beside the king himself who was entitled to have a hird (large armed retinue). The hird, in Norwegian history, was originally an informal Retinue of personal armed companions hirdmen or Housecarls but came to mean not only the nucleus There was usually no more than one jarl in mainland Norway at any one time, sometimes none. The ruler of the Norwegian dependency of Orkney held the title of jarl, and after Iceland had acknowledged Norwegian overlordship in 1261, a jarl was sent there as well as the king's high representative. Orkney (also known as the Orkney Islands or incorrectly the Orkneys) is an Archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles (16 km north Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland ( ( Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland ( In mainland Norway the title jarl was usually used for one of two purposes:
- To appoint a de facto ruler in cases where the king was a minor or seriously ill (e. g. Håkon galen in 1204 during the minority of king Guttorm, Skule Bårdsson in 1217 during the illness of king Inge Bårdsson. Guttorm Sigurdsson, ( Old norse Guthormr Sigurðarson) ( 1199 - 11 August 1204) was King of Norway in 1204. Skule Baardsson or Duke Skule ( Old Norse Skúli Bárðarson) (c Background Inge’s father Bård was a prominent Lendmann from the Trøndelag region )
- To appease a pretender to the throne without giving him the title of king (e. g. Eirik, the brother of king Sverre. Sverre Sigurdsson ( Sverrir Sigurðarson, c 1145/1151 &ndash 9 March 1202) was King of Norway from 1184 to 1202 )
In 1237, jarl Skule Bårdsson was given the rank of duke (hertug). Skule Baardsson or Duke Skule ( Old Norse Skúli Bárðarson) (c A duke is a member of the Nobility, historically of highest rank below the Sovereign, and historically controlled a Duchy or a Dukedom This was the first time this title had been used in Norway, and meant that the title jarl was no longer the highest rank below the king. It also heralded the introduction of new noble titles from continental Europe, which were to replace the old Norse titles. The last jarl in mainland Norway was appointed in 1295
Some Norwegian jarls:
- jarl Toste
- Skule Tostesson, killed by peasants near Haverö church in 12th century.
- Erling skakke, father of king Magnus Erlingsson
- Hakon galen
Sweden
The usage of the title in Sweden was similar to Norway's. Erling Skakke (1115 &ndash 18 June 1179) the son of Kyrpinga-Orm, was a Norwegian strongman and Earl during the 12th century Magnus Erlingsson (1156—1184 was a king of Norway, probably born in Etne in Hordaland. Håkon the Crazy ( Hákon galinn) was a Norwegian Earl, and Birkebeiner chieftain during the Civil war era in Norway. In Sweden, members of medieval royal families such as the House of Stenkil and House of Bjelbo, held the title of jarl before their ascension "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Known jarls from the 12th and 13 century were Birger Brosa, Jon jarl, Folke Birgersson, Karl Döve, Ulf Fase and the most powerful of all jarls and the last to hold the title, Birger jarl. Birger Brosa ( Old Norse: Birgir Brósa where Brósa means "smiling" jarl of Sweden 1174-1202 d Jon Jarl was a legendary Swedish jarl at the end of the 12th and in the early 13th centuries Charles the Deaf (Karl Döve from the House of Bjelbo was the jarl of Sweden during 1216-1220 Ulf Fase (died 1247 was the jarl of Sweden c 1221-47 His nickname "Fase" (sometimes written Fasi) has not been convincingly explained but may born Birger Magnusson (c 1210 – 21 October 1266) was a Swedish statesman a member of the House of Bjelbo, who played a pivotal role
Iceland
Only one person ever held the title of Earl (or Jarl) in Iceland. This was Gissur Þorvaldsson, who was made Earl of Iceland by King Haakon IV of Norway for his efforts in bringing Iceland under Norwegian kingship during the Age of the Sturlungs. Gissur Thorvaldsson (1208 &ndash January 12 1268) (Gissur Þorvaldsson was a medieval Icelandic chieftain or Goði of the Haukdælir Haakon Haakonsson (1204 &ndash December 15, 1263) ( Norwegian Håkon Håkonsson, Old Norse Hákon Hákonarson) also called The Age of the Sturlungs or the Sturlung Era (Icelandic Sturlungaöld) was a 42-44 year period of internal strife in mid 13th century Iceland
Order of precedence
List of Earls in order of precedence
- Earl of Warrington
- Earl of Bute
- Earl of Chesterfield
- Earl of Cork
- Earl of Derby
- Earl of Norfolk
- Earl of Pembroke
- Earl of Shrewsbury
- Earl Spencer
- Earl of Strathmore
- Earl of Warwick
- Earl of Holland
- Welsh Earls
References
- ^ See the Järsberg Runestone from the 6th century carrying the inscription ek erilaR [. The Order of precedence in England and Wales as of 17 December 2007: Names in italics indicate higher precedence elsewhere in the table The title of Earl of Warrington, bestowed upon representatives of the town of Warrington, Lancashire, in the Peerage of England, has been created twice Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. Earls of Chesterfield, in the County of Derby, was a title in the Peerage of England. The Earl of the County of Cork, usually shortened to Earl of Cork, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. Earl of Derby is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers 1st Earl of Derby under a creation of 1139 Earl of Norfolk is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The Earldom of Pembroke, associated with Pembroke Castle in Wales, was created by King Stephen of England. Earl of Shrewsbury (pronounced "shrows-bree" not "shrews-bree" is a title that has been created twice Earl Spencer is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created on 1 November 1765, along with the title Viscount Althorp, of Althorp The title Earl of Kinghorne was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1606 for Patrick Lyon Earl of Warwick (pronounced "Worrick" is a title that has been created four times in British history and is one of the most prestigious titles in the Peerages of the Earl of Holland was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1624 for Henry Rich 1st Baron Kensington. See also Welsh Gentry Family Seats This is an index of Welsh peers whose primary Peerage, life peerage, and baronetcy The Järsberg Runestone is a Runestone in the Elder futhark near Kristinehamn in Värmland, Sweden. . . ] runor waritu. . .
- ^ Lindström, p 113-115
- Marc Morris, The King's Companions (History Today December 2005)
- Geoffrey Hughes, Swearing : a social history of foul language, oaths and profanity in English, ISBN 0-14-026707-7
- Lindström, Fredrik; Lindström, Henrik (2006). Svitjods undergång och Sveriges födelse (in Swedish). Albert Bonniers förlag. ISBN 91-0-010789-1.
Dictionary
earl
-noun
- A British nobleman next in rank above a viscount and below a marquess; equivalent to a European count. A female using the style is termed a countess.
Earl
-proper noun
- The title of an earl.
- (mostly US) A male given name from the English noun earl.
- A surname for service in the household of an earl, or from a nickname.
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