In theGerman nobility,margrave was a rank equivalent tomarquess. It originated as themedieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of theHoly Roman Empire or akingdom. That position became hereditary in certainfeudal families in the Empire and the title came to be borne by rulers of someImperial principalities until the abolition of the Empire in 1806 (e.g.,Margrave of Brandenburg,Margrave of Baden). Thereafter, those domains (originally known asmarks ormarches, later asmargraviates ormargravates) were absorbed into larger realms or the titleholders adopted titles indicative of full sovereignty.
AMarkgraf (margrave) originally functioned as themilitary governor of aCarolingianmarch, amedieval border province.[2] Because the territorial integrity of the borders of therealm of a king or emperor was essential to national security, thevassal (whether acount or other lord) whose lands were on the march of the kingdom or empire was likely to be appointed a margrave and given greater responsibility for securing the border.
The greater exposure of a border province to military invasion mandated that the margrave be provided with military forces and autonomy of action (political as well as military) greater than those accorded otherlords of the realm. As a military governor, the margrave's authority often extended over a territory larger than the province proper, because of border expansion after royal wars.
The margrave thus usually came to exercise commensurately greater politico-military power than other noblemen. The margrave maintained the greater armed forces and fortifications required for repelling invasion, which increased his political strength and independence relative to the monarch. Moreover, a margrave might expand his sovereign's realm by conquering additional territory, sometimes more than he might retain as a personal domain, thus allowing him to endow hisvassals with lands and resources in return for their loyalty to him; the consequent wealth and power might allow the establishment of ade facto near-independent principality of his own.
Most marches and their margraves arose along the eastern borders of theCarolingian Empire and the successorHoly Roman Empire. TheBreton Mark on the Atlantic Ocean and the border of peninsularBrittany and theMarca Hispanica on the Muslim frontier (includingCatalonia) are notable exceptions. The Spanish March was most important during the early stages of the peninsularReconquista of Iberia: ambitious margraves based in thePyrenees took advantage of the disarray in MuslimAl-Andalus to extend their territories southward, leading to the establishment of the Christian kingdoms that would become unified Spain in the fifteenth century. The Crusaders created new and perilous borders susceptible to holy war against the Saracens; they thus had use for such border marches as the GreekMargraviate of Bodonitsa (1204–1414).
As territorial borders stabilised in thelate Middle Ages, marches began to lose their primary military importance; but the entrenched families who held the office of margrave gradually converted their marches into hereditaryfiefs, comparable in all but name toduchies. In an evolution similar to the rises ofdukes,landgraves,counts palatine, andFürsten (ruling princes), these margraves becamesubstantially independent rulers of states under the nominal overlordship of theHoly Roman Emperor.
Another original march also developed into one of the most powerful states in Central Europe: theMargraviate of Austria. Its rulers, theHouse of Habsburg, rose to obtain ade facto monopoly on election to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. They also inherited several, mainly Eastern European andBurgundian, principalities. Austria was originally calledMarchia Orientalis in Latin, the "eastern borderland", as (originally roughly the present Lower-) Austria formed the easternmost reach of the Holy Roman Empire, extending to the lands of theMagyars and theSlavs (since the 19th century,Marchia Orientalis has been translated asOstmark by someGermanophones, though medieval documents attest only to the vernacular nameOstarrîchi). Another march in southeast,Styria, still appears asSteiermark in German today.
The margraves of Brandenburg andMeissen eventually became, respectively, the kings of (originally 'in') Prussia and Saxony.
Originally a military office entrusted with guarding the borderlands (Mark), the title ofmargrave (Markgraf, Marchio) gradually transformed into a noble rank within the hierarchy of theHoly Roman Empire. Though no longer associated with a specific military function, the margrave ranked above aGraf (count) and was equivalent in status to titles such asLandgrave,Palsgrave (Pfalzgraf), andGefürsteter Graf (princely count). Nevertheless, the rank remained below that of aHerzog (duke) and in most cases also below aFürst (prince).
In some regions such as southernAustria andnorthern Italy—where imperial authority extended beyond the Alps—a number of nobles were granted the title of margrave by the Emperor. In Italian, this was typically rendered asmarchese (marquis).[2] Among these were ruling dynasties like theMarquis of Mantua,Marquis of Montferrat,Marquis of Saluzzo,Marquis of Fosdinovo, as well as the rulers of theMarch of Genoa, who exercisedde factosovereignty. Their authority was equivalent to that of a territorial prince. Among them were thePallavicini, a family descending from theObertenghi margraves who ruled over a number of fiefs inLombardy andLiguria.[3] In contrast, othernoble families such as theBurgau orPiatti held margravial titles without exercising territorial sovereignty.
By the 19th century, the sovereigns in Germany, Italy and Austria had all adopted "higher" titles, and not a single sovereign margraviate remained. Although the title remained part of the official style of such monarchs as the German Emperors, Kings of Saxony, and Grand Dukes of Baden, it fell into desuetude as the primary title of members of any reigning family.
The children ofCharles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden by his second,morganatic wife,Luise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg, only legally shared their mother's title ofImperial Count von Hochberg from 1796, and were not officially elevated to the title of margrave until 1817 when they were publicly de-morganitised.[4] But their father had allowed its use for his morganatic children at his owncourt inKarlsruhe from his assumption of thegrand ducal crown in 1806, simultaneously according to the princely title to the dynastic sons of his first marriage.[4] However, from 1817 his male-line descendants of both marriages were internationally recognised as entitled to the princely prefix, which all used henceforth.
The title ofMargrave of Baden has been borne as atitle of pretence only by the head of theHouse of Zähringen since the death of thelast reigning Grand Duke,Frederick II, in 1928.[4] Likewise,Margrave of Meissen is used as a title of pretence by the claimant to the Kingdom of Saxony since the death in exile of its last monarch,King Fredrick Augustus III, in 1932.[5]
In 1914, the Imperial German Navy commissioned a dreadnought battleshipSMS Markgraf named after this title. She fought in WWI and was interned and scuttled at Scapa Flow after the war.
The etymological heir of the margrave in Europe's nobilities is themarquis, also introduced in countries that never had any margraviates, such as the Britishmarquess; their languages may use one or two words, e.g. Frenchmargrave ormarquis. Themargrave/marquis ranked below its nation's equivalent of "duke" (Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Scandinavia, Spain) or of "prince" (Belgium, Italy), but above "count" or "earl".
The wife of a margrave is amargravine (Markgräfin in German, butmargrave in French). In Germany and Austria, where titles were borne by all descendants in the male line of the original grantee, men and women alike, each daughter was aMarkgräfin as each son was aMarkgraf.
The title ofmargrave is translated below in languages which distinguishmargrave frommarquis, the latter being the English term for a Continental noble of rank equivalent to a British marquess. In languages which sometimes usemarquis to translatemargrave, that fact is indicated below in parentheses):
Several states have had analogous institutions, sometimes also rendered in English asmargrave. For example, on England'sCeltic borders (Welsh Marches andScottish Marches),Marcher Lords were vassals of theKing of England, expected to help him defend and expand his realm. Such a lord'sdemesne was called amarch (compare the Englishcounty palatine). The Marcher Lords were a conspicuous exception to the general structure of Englishfeudalism as set up byWilliam the Conqueror,[2] who made a considerable effort to avoid having too-powerful vassals with a big contiguous territory and a strong local power base; the needs of fighting the Welsh and Scots made it necessary to have exactly this kind of vassal in the Marches, who did develop their territorial ambitions (for example those ofChester).
Thelate-medieval commanders, fiefholders, ofViborg Castle in Finland (seeFief of Viborg), the bulwark of the then-Swedish realm, at the border againstNovgorod, did, in practice, function asmargraves. They had feudal privileges and kept all of the crown's income from the fief to use for the defence of the realm's eastern border. Its fiefholders were (almost always) descended from, or married to, the noble family ofBååt fromSmåland in Sweden.[citation needed]
The German wordMark also has other meanings than the margrave's territorial border area, often with a territorial component, which occurs more numerously thanmargraviates; so its occurrence in composite place names does not necessarily imply that it was part of amargraviate as such. Uses ofMark in German names are commonly more local, as in the context of aMarkgenossenschaft, which means a partially self-governing association of agricultural users of an area; the German name-componentMark can also be a truncated form ofMarkt 'market', as in the small town ofMarksuhl in theEisenach area ofThuringia, meaning 'market town on the riverSuhl'. The non-margravial origin even applies to theCounty of Mark and the country ofDenmark (meaning 'march of the Danes', in the sense of border area, yet never under a Margrave but the Danish national kingdom, outside the Holy Roman Empire).
TheSassanid Persian position ofmarzban (marz means border, andban means lord) orKanarang was a position given to officials or generals who were trusted by the king and that had land, villages, and towns in far reaches of the empire. In return for their position and privilege to collect taxes, they were responsible for defending the empire from foreign intrusion.
TheByzantine Empire had a number of fortified passes in the mountainous frontier districts calledkleisoura orkleisarchy, particularly along its eastern border with theCaliphate, each headed by akleisourarches who controlled access to inner lands. However anExarch in the late Roman, earlyEastern Roman Empire era, was the military commander and imperial governor of a region at the brink of the controlled territories, not an aristocratic lord in his own (hereditary) right.
The Turkish title and position ofuç beyi ("frontierlord"), used inearly Turkish Anatolia and during theOttoman conquest of theBalkans, is also often rendered as "margrave".
^abcHuberty, Michel; Giraud, Alain; Magdelaine, F. and B. (1991).L'Allemagne Dynastique, Tome VI. France: Laballery. pp. 108,113–114,120–121,141–142.ISBN2-901138-06-3.
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