- Earl
Earl was the Anglo-Saxon form and jarl the
Scandinavia n form of a title meaning "chieftain " and referring especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in theMiddle Ages and was replaced withduke ("hertig"/"hertug"); in later medieval Britain, it became the equivalent of the continentalcount (in England in the earlier period, it was more akin toduke , while in Scotland it assimilated the concept ofmormaer ).In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the
peerage , ranking below amarquess and above aviscount . The English never developed a feminine form of earl; the wife of an earl is styledcountess (the continental equivalent).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.According to
Procopius , theHeruli , after having raided the European continent for several generations, returned to Scandinavia in 512 AD as a result of military defeats. As their old territory was now occupied by the Danes, they settled next to theGeat s in present-day Sweden. While theProto-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 therune s in Scandinavia [See theJärsberg Runestone from the 6th century carrying the inscription "ek erilaR [...] runor waritu..."] , no elaborate theory exists to explain how the word came to be used as a title. 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.Lindström, p 113-115]The Norman-derived equivalent "count" was not introduced following the
Norman Conquest of England though "countess" was and is used for the female title. 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. In Scotland the word earl was used in English to refer to amormaer .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).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. 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. Someshire s were grouped together into larger units known as "earldoms", headed by an "ealdorman" or "earl". UnderEdward the Confessor earldoms like Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria—names that represented earlier independent kingdoms—were much larger than any shire.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.After the
Norman Conquest ,William the Conqueror tried to rule England using the traditional system but eventually modified it to his own liking. 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 . He gave some earls the right to holdroyal castle s or control thesheriff and soon other earls assumed these rights themselves. 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 graduallysheriff s assumed the governing role. The details of this transition remain obscure, since earls in more peripheral areas, such as the Scottish and Welshmarches andCornwall , retained some viceregal powers long after other earls had lost them. The loosening of central authority duringthe Anarchy also complicates any smooth description of the changeover.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. 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.
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), 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 inEssex . 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.
Order of precedence
List of English 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 EarlsScotland
The oldest earldoms in
Scotland originated from the office ofmormaer , such as theMormaer of Fife , of Strathearn, etc; later earldoms developed by analogy.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. The "jarl" was the only one beside the king himself who was entitled to have ahird (large armed retinue). There was usually no more than one "jarl" in mainland Norway at any one time, sometimes none. The ruler of the Norwegian dependency ofOrkney held the title of "jarl", and afterIceland had acknowledged Norwegian overlordship in1261 , a "jarl" was sent there as well as the king's high representative. 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" in1204 during the minority of king Guttorm, Skule Bårdsson in1217 during the illness of king Inge Bårdsson).
* To appease a pretender to the throne without giving him the title of king (e.g. "Eirik", the brother of king Sverre).In 1237, "jarl" Skule Bårdsson was given the rank of
duke ("hertug"). 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 in1295 Some Norwegian jarls:
*jarl Toste
*Skule Tostesson , killed by peasants near Haverö church in 12th century.
*Erling skakke , father of kingMagnus Erlingsson
*Hakon galen Sweden
The usage of the title in
Sweden was similar to Norway's. Known jarls from the 12th and 13 century wereBirger 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 .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 KingHaakon IV of Norway for his efforts in bringing Iceland under Norwegian kingship during theAge of the Sturlungs .References
* 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
* cite book
title = Svitjods undergång och Sveriges födelse
author = Lindström, Fredrik; Lindström, Henrik
publisher = Albert Bonniers förlag
year = 2006
id = ISBN 91-0-010789-1
language = Swedish
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