Count (feminine:countess) is a historical title ofnobility in certainEuropean countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility.^[1] Especially in earlier medieval periods the term often implied not only a certain status, but also that thecount had specific responsibilities or offices. The etymologically related English term "county" denoted the territories associated with some countships, but not all.

The title ofcount is typically not used in England or English-speaking countries, and the termearl is used instead. A female holder of the title is still referred to as acountess, however.

The wordcount came into English from theFrenchcomte, itself fromLatincomes—in itsaccusative formcomitem. It meant "companion" or "attendant", and as a title it indicated that someone was delegated to represent the ruler.

In the lateRoman Empire, the Latin titlecomes denoted the high rank of various courtiers and provincial officials, either military or administrative. BeforeAnthemius became emperor in the West in 467, he was a militarycomes charged with strengthening defenses on theDanube frontier.^[2]

In theWestern Roman Empire, "count" came to indicate generically a military commander^{[citation needed]} but was not a specific rank. In theEastern Roman Empire, from about the seventh century, "count" was a specific rank indicating the commander of twocenturiae (i.e., 200 men).

The medieval title ofcomes was originally not hereditary.^[3] It was regarded as an administrative official dependent on the king, until the process ofallodialisation during the 9th century in which such titles came to be private possessions of noble families.^[4] By virtue of their large estates, many counts could pass the title to their heirs—but not always. For instance, inPiast Poland, the position ofkomes was not hereditary, resembling the earlyMerovingian institution. The title had disappeared by the era of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the office had been replaced by others. Only after thePartitions of Poland did the title of "count" resurface in the titlehrabia, derived from the GermanGraf.

In theFrankish kingdoms in the earlyMiddle Ages, a count might also be acount palatine, whose authority derived directly over a royal household, apalace in its original sense of the seat of power and administration. This other kind of count had vague antecedents inLate Antiquity too: the father ofCassiodorus held positions of trust with Theodoric, ascomes rerum privatarum, in charge of the imperial lands, then ascomes sacrarum largitionum ("count of the sacred doles"), concerned with the finances of the realm.^[5]

In the United Kingdom, the title ofearl is used instead ofcount. Although the exact reason is debated by historians and linguists, one of the more popular theories proposes thatcount fell into disuse because of its phonetic similarity to the vulgar slang wordcunt.^[6]

It is only after some time that the continental medieval title came to be strongly associated with the ownership of and jurisdiction over specific lands, which led to evolution of the termcounty to refer to specific regions. The English term county, used as an equivalent to the English termshire, is derived from theOld Frenchconté orcunté which denoted thejurisdiction of a French count orviscount.^[7] The modern French iscomté, and its equivalents in other languages arecontea,contado,comtat,condado,Grafschaft,graafschap, etc. (cf.conte,comte,conde,Graf). The title of Count also continued to exist in cases which are not connected to any specific to a geographical "county".

In theUnited Kingdom, the equivalent "Earl" can also be used as acourtesy title for the eldest son of a duke or marquess. In theItalian states, by contrast, all the sons of certain counts were little counts (contini). InSweden 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.

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.

Apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily permanently.

• Dauphin (English:Dolphin; Spanish:Delfín; Italian:Delfino; Portuguese:Delfim;Latin: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 therégionDauphiné.
• Conde-Duque "Count-Duke" is a rare title used inSpain, notably byGaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares. He had inherited the title of count of Olivares, but when created Duke of Sanlucar la Mayor by KingPhilip 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.
• Conde-Barão 'Count-Baron' is a rare title used inPortugal, notably by DomLuís Lobo da Silveira, 7th Baron of Alvito, who received the title of Count of Oriola in 1653 from KingJohn IV of Portugal. His palace in Lisbon still exists, located in a square named after him (Largo do Conde-Barão).
• Archcount is a very rare title, etymologically analogous toarchduke, apparently never recognized officially, used by or for:
  • thecount of Flanders (an originalpairie 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 epithetGrand Duc de l'Occident (beforeGrand duke became a formal title) for the even wealthierDuke of Burgundy
  • at least oneCount of Burgundy (i.e.Freigraf ofFranche-Comté)
• In German kingdoms, the titleGraf 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 asMarkgraf (see alsoMarquess),Landgraf,Freigraf ("free count"),Burggraf, whereBurg signifies castle; see alsoViscount,Pfalzgraf (translated both as "Count Palatine" and, historically, as "Palsgrave"),Raugraf ("Raugrave", see "Graf", andWaldgraf (comes nemoris), whereWald signifies a large forest) (from Latinnemus = grove).
• The GermanGraf and Dutchgraaf (Latin:grafio) stem from the Byzantine-Greekγραφεύςgrapheus meaning "he who calls a meeting [i.e. the court] together").^[8]
• The Ottoman military title ofSerdar 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-graf in various offices which are not linked to feudal nobility, such as the Dutch titlesPluimgraaf (a courtsinecure, so usually held by noble courtiers, may even be rendered hereditary) andDijkgraaf (to the present, in the Low Countries, a manager in the local or regional administration of watercourses through dykes, ditches, controls etc.; also in GermanDeichgraf, synonymous withDeichhauptmann, "dike captain").

SinceLouis 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 apairie, i.e. carried the exclusive rank ofpair; within the first (i.e. clerical) and second (noble) estates, the first three of the original twelveanciennes pairies were ducal, the next three comitalcomté-pairies:

• Bishop-counts of Beauvais (in Picardy)
• Bishop-counts of Châlons (in Champagne)
• Bishop-counts ofNoyon (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 asapanages (for members of the royal house) or for foreigners; after the 16th century all new peerages were always duchies and the medieval countship-peerages had died out, or were held by royal princes

Other French countships of note included those of:

• Count of Angoulême, later Duke
• Count of Anjou, later Duke
• Count of Auvergne
• Count of Bar, later Duke
• Count of Blois
• Count of Boulogne
• Count of Foix
• Count of Montpensier
• Count of Poitiers

• Freigraf ("free count") of Burgundy (i.e. present Franche-Comté)
• TheDauphiné

See also above for parts of present France

AGraf ruled over a territory known as aGrafschaft ('county'). See also various comital and related titles; especially those actually reigning over a principality:Gefürsteter Graf,Landgraf,Reichsgraf; compareMarkgraf,Burggraf,Pfalzgraf (seeImperial quaternions).

The title ofConte is very prolific on the peninsula. In the eleventh century,Conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. Even apparently "lower"-sounding titles, likeViscount, could describe powerful dynasts, such as theHouse of Visconti which ruled a major city such asMilan. The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans, wassignore, modeled on the Frenchseigneur, used with the name of thefief. By the fourteenth century,conte and the Imperial titlebarone were virtually synonymous^{[citation needed]}.

Some titles of a count, according to the particulars of the patent, might be inherited by the eldest son of a Count. Younger brothers might be distinguished as "X dei conti di Y" ("X of the counts of Y"). However, if there is no male to inherit the title and the count has a daughter, in some regions she could inherit the title.

Many Italian counts left their mark on Italian history as individuals, yet only a fewcontadi (countships; the wordcontadini for inhabitants of a "county" remains the Italian word for "peasant") were politically significant principalities, notably:

• Norman Count ofApulia
• Count of Savoy, later Duke (also partly in France and in Switzerland)
• Count of Asti
• Count of Montferrat (Monferrato)
• Count of Montefeltro
• Count of Tusculum

The principalities tended to start out as margraviate or (promoted to) duchy, and became nominal archduchies within the Habsburg dynasty; noteworthy are:

• Count of Tyrol
• Count of Cilli
• Count of Schaumburg

Apart from various small ones, significant were :

• in presentday Belgium :
  • Count of Flanders (Vlaanderen in Dutch), but only the small part east of the river Schelde remained within the empire; the far larger west, an original Frenchcomté-pairie became part of the French realm
  • Count of Hainaut
  • Count of Namur, later a margraviate
  • Count of Leuven (Louvain), later a dukedom
  • Count of Loon
• in the presentday Netherlands:
  • Count of Guelders later Dukes of Guelders
  • Count of Holland
  • Count of Zeeland
  • Count of Zutphen

• Count of Geneva
• Count ofNeuchâtel
• Count of Toggenburg
• Count ofKyburg
• Count de Salis-Soglio (also in the UK, Canada and Australia)
• Count de Salis-Seewis
• Count of Panzutti

Count/Countess was one of the noble titles granted by the Pope as a temporal sovereign, and the title's holder was sometimes informally known as a papal count/papal countess or less so as a Roman count/Roman countess, but mostly as count/countess. The comital title, which could be for life or hereditary, was awarded in various forms by popes and Holy Roman Emperors since the Middle Ages, infrequently before the 14th century, and the pope continued to grant the comital and other noble titles even after 1870, it was largely discontinued in the mid 20th-century, on the accession ofJohn XXIII. The Papacy and theKingdom of the Two Sicilies might appoint counts palatine with no particular territorial fief. Until 1812 in some regions, the purchaser of land designated "feudal" was ennobled by the noble seat that he held and became aconte. This practice ceased with the formal abolition of feudalism in the various principalities of early-19th century Italy, last of all in thePapal States.

Poland was notable throughout its history for not granting titles of nobility. This was on the premise that one could only be born into nobility, outside rare exceptions. Instead, it conferrednon-hereditary courtly or civic roles. The noble titles that were in use on its territory were mostly of foreign provenance and usually subject to the process ofindygenat, naturalisation.

Somewhat similar to the native privileged class of nobles found in Poland, Hungary also had a class ofConditional nobles.

As opposed to the plethora of hollow "gentry" counts, only a few countships ever were important in medievalIberia; most territory was firmly within theReconquista kingdoms before counts could become important. However, during the 19th century, the title, having lost its high rank (equivalent to that ofDuke), proliferated.

Portugal itself started as a countship in 868, but became akingdom in 1139 (see:County of Portugal). Throughout thehistory of Portugal, especially during theconstitutional monarchy many other countships were created.

In Spain, no countships of wider importance exist, except in the former Spanish march.^{[citation needed]}

• County of Barcelona, the initial core of thePrincipality of Catalonia, later one of the states of theCrown of Aragon, which became one of the two main components of the Spanish crown.
• Count of Aragon
• Count of Castile
• Count of Galicia
• Count of Lara
• Count Cassius, progenitor of theBanu Qasi
• County of Urgell, later integrated into thePrincipality of Catalonia.
• The otherCatalan counties were much smaller and were absorbed early into theCounty of Barcelona (between parentheses the annexation year):County of Girona (897),County of Besalú,County of Osona, which included the nominalCounty of Manresa (1111),County of Berga andCounty of Conflent (1117) andCounty of Cerdanya (1118). From 1162 these counties, together with that of Barcelona, were merged into thePrincipality of Catalonia, a sovereign state that absorbed some other counties:County of Roussillon (1172),County of Pallars Jussà (1192),County of Empúries (1402),County of Urgell (1413) andCounty of Pallars Sobirà (1487), giving the Principality its definitive shape.

In theFirst Bulgarian Empire, akomit was a hereditary provincial ruler under thetsar documented since the reign ofPresian (836-852)^[9] TheCometopouli dynasty was named after its founder, thekomit ofSredets.

The title ofSerdar was used in thePrincipality of Montenegro and thePrincipality of Serbia as a noble title below that ofVoivode equivalent to that of Count.

• Count of Edessa
• Count of Tripoli (1102–1288)

InDenmark and historically inDenmark-Norway the title of count (greve) is the highest rank of nobility used in the modern period. Some Danish/Dano-Norwegian countships were associated withfiefs, and these counts were known as "feudal counts" (lensgreve). They rank above ordinary (titular) counts, and their position in the Danish aristocracy as the highest-ranking noblemen is broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries.^[10] With the first freeConstitution of Denmark of 1849 came a complete abolition of the privileges of the nobility. Since then the title of count has been granted only to members of theDanish royal family, either as a replacement for a princely title when marrying a commoner, or in recent times, instead of that title in connection with divorce. Thus the first wife ofPrince Joachim of Denmark, the younger son ofMargrethe II of Denmark, becameAlexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg on their divorce—initially retaining her title of princess, but losing it on her remarriage.

In the Middle Ages the title ofjarl (earl) was the highest title of nobility. The title was eventually replaced by the title of duke, but that title was abolished in Denmark and Norway as early as the Middle Ages. Titles were only reintroduced with the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660, with count as the highest title.

In Sweden the rank of count is the highest rank conferred upon nobles in the modern era and are, like their Danish and Norwegian counterparts, broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. Unlike the rest of Scandinavia, the title of duke is still used in Sweden, but only by members of the royal family not considered part of the nobility.

Like other major Westernnoble titles, Count is sometimes used to render certain titles in non-western languages with their own traditions, even though they are as a rule historically unrelated and thus hard to compare, but which are considered "equivalent" in rank.

This is the case with:

• theChineseBó (伯), or "Bojue" (伯爵), hereditary title of nobility ranking belowHóu (侯) and aboveZĭ (子)
• earl of Britain
• theJapanese equivalentHakushaku (伯爵), adapted during theMeiji restoration
• theKorean equivalentBaekjak (백작) orPoguk
• inVietnam, it is renderedBá, one of the lower titles reserved for male members of the Imperial clan, aboveTử (Viscount),Nam (Baron) andVinh phong (lowest noble title), but lower than—in ascending order—Hầu (Marquis),Công (Prince),Quận-Công (Duke/Duke of a commandery) andQuốc-Công (Grand Duke/Duke of the Nation), all underVương (King) andHoàng Đế (Emperor).
• theIndianSardar, adopted by theMaratha Empire, additionally,Jagirdar andDeshmukh are close equivalents
• theArabic equivalentSheikh
• In traditionalSulu equivalent toDatu Sadja

The title "Count" in fiction is commonly, though not always, given to evil characters, used as another word for prince or vampires:

• Czech nobility
• Icelandic nobility
• Romanian nobility
• Russian nobility
• Viscount
• Earl

• Labarre de Raillicourt:Les Comtes Romains
• Westermann,Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)

• Heraldica.org - here the French peerage
• Italian Titles of NobilityArchived 2012-05-27 at theWayback Machine
• Webster's 1828 Dictionary