|
An Earl or Jarl was an Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian title meaning "chieftain" and referring especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke (hertig/hertug), whereas, in Britain, it became synonymous with the continental count. Look up Earl in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Earl is a surname, and may refer to: Glenn Earl Harley Earl Henry Earl Kate Earl Ralph Earl (artist) Robert Earl (colonel), Iran-Contras Robert Earl (businessman), Planet Hollywood Robert Earl (singer) Roger Earl Ronnie Earl Tony Earl Earl may also refer to: My Name Is Earl, a NBC television...
Earl may refer to: Names, see Earl (given name) or Earl (surname). ...
Image File history File links Earls_Procession_to_Parliament. ...
Image File history File links Earls_Procession_to_Parliament. ...
Type Bicameral Houses House of Commons House of Lords Speaker of the House of Commons The Right Honourable Michael Martin MP Lord Speaker Hélène Hayman, Baroness Hayman, PC Members 1377 (646 Commons, 731 Peers) Political groups (as of May 5, 2005 elections) Labour Party Conservative Party Liberal Democrats...
Westminster is a district within the City of Westminster in London. ...
is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1512 (MDXII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ...
The title Marquess of Dorset has been created three times in the Peerage of England. ...
The title of Earl of Northumberland was created several times in the Peerages of England and Great Britain. ...
Arms of the Warrens of Surrey The Earldom of Surrey was first created in 1088 for William de Warenne. ...
The Earl of Shrewsbury is the senior Earl on the Roll in the Peerage of England (the more senior Earldom of Arundel being held by the Duke of Norfolk). ...
Earl of Essex is a title that has been held by several families and individuals, of which the best-known and most closely associated with the title was Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1566 - 1601). ...
The peerage title Earl of Kent has been created many times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ...
The Earl of Derby is a title in the peerage of England. ...
The title Earl of Wiltshire is one of the oldest in the Peerage of England, going back to the 12th century. ...
For other uses, see Anglo-Saxon. ...
Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centered on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. ...
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
A duke is a nobleman, historically of highest rank and usually controlling a duchy. ...
A count is a nobleman in most European countries, equivalent in rank to a British earl, whose wife is also still a countess (for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term). ...
Today, an earl is a member of the British peerage and ranks below a Marquess and above a Viscount. Since there is no feminine form of Earl, the wife of an Earl bears the rank of Countess (the continental equivalent). For other uses, see Peerage (disambiguation). ...
“Marquis†redirects here. ...
A viscount is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl (in Britain) or a count (his continental equivalent). ...
Look up Count in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A count is a nobleman in most European countries, equivalent in rank to a British earl, whose wife is still a countess (for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term). ...
See Ríg for the account in Norse mythology of the warrior Jarl or Ríg-Jarl presented as the ancestor of the class of warrior-nobles. RÃg is the name applied to a Norse god described as old and wise, mighty and strong in the Eddic poem RÃgthula (Old Norse RÃgþula - Song of RÃg). ...
Norse, Viking or Scandinavian mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian peoples, including those who settled on Iceland, where most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled. ...
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 counsellor of the realm. That term survives in modern English as "Alderman", a councillor or representative in local government or a local church governing body. The Norman-derived "count" was not used probably due to its resemblance to the unflattering word "cunt", 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". Some others associate the word to the proto-Germanic Erilaz meaning a 'rune-master'. Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the...
A title used during the Viking Age and Middle Ages in Scandinavia. ...
Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ...
Not to be confused with Entomology, the scientific study of insects. ...
An Ealdorman, or Alderman, was the prior magistrate of a British shire in A. D. 900 to A. D. 1100. ...
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions. ...
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. ...
Cunt is an English language vulgarism most commonly used in reference to the human vulva or vagina and, more generally, the pubis, from the mons veneris to the perineum. ...
Erilaz is a Migration period Proto-Norse word attested on various Elder Futhark inscriptions, which has often been interpreted to mean magician or rune master, viz. ...
British Isles
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 takes the highest of his father's lesser titles as a courtesy title; younger sons are styled The Honourable [Forename] [Surname] , and daughters The Lady [Forename] [Surname] (Lady Diana Spencer being a well-known example). A courtesy title is a form of address in the British peerage system used for wives, children, and other close relatives of a peer. ...
“Diana Spencer†redirects here. ...
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. Some shires were grouped together into larger units known as earldoms, headed by an ealdorman or earl. Under Edward the Confessor earldoms like Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria — names that represented earlier independent kingdoms — were much larger than any shire. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...
For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...
A shire is an administrative area of Great Britain and Australia. ...
St Edward the Confessor or Eadweard III (c. ...
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 most European countries, equivalent in rank to a British earl, whose wife is also still a countess (for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term). ...
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. Bayeux Tapestry depicting events leading to the Battle of Hastings The Norman Conquest of England was the conquest of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. ...
William I ( 1027 – September 9, 1087), was King of England from 1066 to 1087. ...
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 hold royal castles or control the sheriff 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. Stephen (c. ...
Empress Matilda (February 1102 – September 10, 1167; sometimes Maud or Maude), also called Matilda, Countess of Anjou or Matilda, Lady of the English, was the daughter and dispossessed heir of King Henry I of England. ...
Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
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. Henry II of England 5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189) ruled as King of England (1154–1189), Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. ...
The English kings had found it dangerous to give additional power to an already powerful aristocracy, 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. Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of the constraining and/or enabling nature of power. ...
Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: The term aristocracy refers to a form of government where power is held by a small number of individuals from an elite or from noble families. ...
Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Frankish word marka (boundary) and refer to a border region, e. ...
For other uses, see Cornwall (disambiguation). ...
The Anarchy in English history commonly names the period of civil war and unsettled government that occurred during the reign (1135–1154) of King Stephen of England. ...
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. Edward II, (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until deposed in January, 1327. ...
This article is about the King of England. ...
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 in Essex. They became earls of Oxford because earls of Essex and of the other nearby shires already existed. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ...
Essex is a county in the East of England. ...
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. This article is about the country. ...
The title of mormaor or mormaer designated one of the rulers of the seven provinces of Celtic Scotland, i. ...
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 a hird (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 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. In mainland Norway the title jarl was usually used for one of two purposes: Housecarls were household troops, personal warriors and equivalent to a royal bodyguard to Scandinavian kings. ...
Location Geography Area Ranked 16th - Total 990 km² - % Water ? Admin HQ Kirkwall ISO 3166-2 GB-ORK ONS code 00RA Demographics Population Ranked 32nd - Total (2005) 19,590 - Density 20 / km² Scottish Gaelic - Total () {{{Scottish council Gaelic Speakers}}} Politics Orkney Islands Council http://www. ...
Events July 25 - Constantinople re-captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus, Byzantine Empire re-formed August 29 - Urban IV becomes Pope, the last man to do so without being a Cardinal first Bela IV of Hungary repels Tatar invasion Charles of Anjou given rule of...
- 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.)
- 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 in 1295 [Neilhughandafriendlypeasant. ...
Guttorm Sigurdsson was king of Norway in 1204. ...
Skule Baardsson or Duke Skule allowed his supporters to proclaim him king of Norway at the traditional Øyrating in 1239. ...
April 9 - Peter of Courtenay crowned emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople at Rome, by Pope Honorius III May 20 - First Barons War, royalist victory at Lincoln. ...
Inge Baardson (1185 - 1217) was a king of Norway between 1205 and 1217. ...
King Sverres trek across the Voss mountains is imagined in this 19th century painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo. ...
Skule Baardsson or Duke Skule allowed his supporters to proclaim him king of Norway at the traditional Øyrating in 1239. ...
A duke is a nobleman, historically of highest rank and usually controlling a duchy. ...
Events Mongol leader Ghazan Khan is converted to Islam, ending a line of Tantric Buddhist leaders. ...
Some Norwegian jarls:
Erling Skakke, the son of Kyrpinga-Orm, was a Norwegian strongman and earl during the 13th century. ...
Magnus Erlingsson (1156-1184). ...
Håkon the Crazy (Hákon galinn) was a Norwegian earl, and birkebeiner chieftain during the civil war era in Norway. ...
Sweden -
The usage of the title in Sweden was similar to Norway's. 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. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Birger Brosas sealBirger Brosa (Brosa means smiling), earl of Sweden 1174-1202, d. ...
Johan Sverkersson (Old Norse: Jón jarl Sörkvisson) (c. ...
Charles the Deaf (Swedish: ) 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. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
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 - January 12, 1268) (Icelandic: Gissur Þorvaldsson) was a medieval Icelandic chieftain or goði of the Haukdælir family clan, and great-grandson of Jón Loftsson. ...
Haakon Haakonsson (1204 – December 15, 1263) (Norwegian Håkon Håkonsson, Old Norse Hákon Hákonarson), also called Haakon the Old, was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. ...
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. ...
See also List of Earls in order of precedence The title of Earl of Warrington has been created twice in British history. ...
The title of Marquess of Bute was created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1796 for the 4th Earl of Bute (in the Peerage of Scotland). ...
The Earls of Chesterfield were an aristocratic family from Derbyshire, England. ...
The title Earl of Cork was created in 1620. ...
The Earl of Derby is a title in the peerage of England. ...
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. ...
The Earl of Shrewsbury is the senior Earl on the Roll in the Peerage of England (the more senior Earldom of Arundel being held by the Duke of Norfolk). ...
The title Earl Spencer was created in 1765 in the Peerage of Great Britain for John Spencer, 1st Viscount Spencer, a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. ...
The title Earl of Kinghorne was created in the Peerage of Scotland 1606 for Patrick Lyon. ...
The Earl of Warwick is one of the oldest English earldoms. ...
Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland was baptized on August 19, 1590 and he was probably born earlier on the same year. ...
Welsh peers hold their titles from a variety of sources. ...
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
|
Feeds |
Contact