A Glossary of European Titles
Noble, Princely, Royal, and Imperial

1. Sovereigns and Sovereignty
2. Nobles and Nobility
3. Imperial Titles

4. Ruling Titles.

4.1 Kings and Queens
4.2 Other Ruling Titles

5. The Pope

6. The Holy Roman Empire and the German System
7. Imperial, Royal, and Noble Offspring

8. Prince and Fürst, Grand Duke, Margrave, Count-Palatine, and Landgrave

8.1. Prince and Fürst
8.2. Grand Duke
8.3. Margrave
8.4. Count-Palatine
8.5. Landgrave

            9. Noble Titles

        9.1. Duke
        9.2. Marquess
        9.3. Earl, Count, and Graf
        9.4. Viscount
        9.5. Baron
        9.6. Baronet

        In Malta the order or ranking of Nobility is slightly different, using just three of the styles

        10. Maltese Noble Titles in order of precedence

            10.1 Marquis or Marchioness
            10.2 Count
            10.3 Baron
       

Nobles and Nobility

Romans recognized three orders: patricians, equestrians and plebeians, and earlier, before the foundation of the republic, a fourth: Royalty. Added to this, there was the concept of nobilis; to be noble meant you were descended from someone who had been Consul; being a patrician was necessary to become Consul (though you could buy your way in), but to be noble was ineffably grander, at least to the Roman way of thinking. This has been turned around a bit in Italy; in Italian cities today, a "patriciate" exists which is considered to be above "mere" nobility.

These notions of the Romans apply to present-day parlance. In the British system, one can discriminate between royalty, nobility, knights, gentry and commons: five grades. The Germans tend to regard certain of what the British regard as gentry as noble, and at the highest levels, what the British define as noble resembles what the Germans regard as "princely" and in general, continental systems as a whole tend to have a broader definition of "noble".

In essence, the nobility were the landowners. To be a landowner you had to be prepared to defend your right to own that land, and with the progressive disorders that lead to the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the development of the feudal system in Europe, nobility became synonymous with the military caste -- an essentially self-appointed caste.

In the West, it is nearly impossible to trace any noble lineage back much before AD 800 (though the old Gaelic nobility of Ireland has a special claim to antiquity here); anything before 1100 is remarkable. The organized system of titles we have today is a rather late development, but "count", and "prince" go back to the Roman Empire. Only when it was recognized that one might have "betters" (i.e., with the organization of nation-states) did the nobles start paying attention to titles, styles, and pedigrees.

A distinction needs to be made between "nobility" and "peerage". In the British system, a peer is the holder of the title, while a noble is a member of a family headed by a peer. In the UK, such family members, while "noble", are still technically common, which is not necessarily the case elsewhere. More narrowly, a peer also sits in parliament, as with the British House of Lords or the former French House of Peers. There are some titles in the United Kingdom (e.g., the Irish peerage, when the peer lacks another English, Scots or UK title) which do not permit one to sit in the House of Lords; thus, in Scotland, the distinction of a "Lord of Parliament". See:

Something also needs to be said about "title inflation". While the British system is tidily exclusive, this is not the case in other systems. As explained below, some systems (as with France) have long tolerated "courtesy titles", a putative title of nobility that has no basis in fact. In other cases, all the descendants of a noble have a title, the title holder, as in Italy, being styled "Duke of Suchandsuch", with everyone else being titled "Firstname of the Dukes (or Marquesses, etc) of Suchandsuch".

François Velde writes about the French situation:

Nowadays, anyone descended from a count uses the style of count (although "le comte Pierre de X" is distinguished from "Pierre, comte de X" who is the real title-holder). That makes it seem like many counts. Since there are only about 1000 authentic titles, the share of titles/peerages to population is similar to England.

In Germany, since the Weimar Republic, all titles are considered part of one's last name. Thus, a real title holder can "adopt" an adult, and the otherwise unrelated person then can become "Joe Schmuck Duke of Saxony" (this is the case of ZsaZsa's hubby); the practice is alluded to in Billy Wilder's film, One Two Three (Cagney's last film before Ragtime).

Then there is the matter of how the nobility of a previous state was incorporated into that of a successor state or regime. This particularly applies to Germany as well as Italy, but also applies to the case of the United Kingdom (with the Scots and Irish peerages) and in France, how titles granted after the ancient regime are handled. The term "mediatisation" is often applied here.

On occasion, all of this becomes very involved, a topic hotly (and voluminously) debated. Outside the British system, the reader is cautioned about taking any title at immediate face value, as a thousand years of history, succeeding states, differing usages, vast quantities of personal vanity, as well as not a little fraud may be involved; it is not without good reason that Dumas, Trollope, et al. had fun casting faux Italian nobles as charming (or not-so-charming) villains. Even in Britain, the recent practice of peddling lordships of the manor (feudal leftovers so devoid of meaning that Parliament has never seen fit to abolish them) testifies to the problems;

Nobility:

9.1. Dukes

Related Terms: duchy, dukedom, ducal.

The Latin dux was a military title that might roughly translate to "field marshal". The historical kernel of in the stories of King Arthur probably refers to a dux bellorum in charge of the forces holding off the barbarian onslaught in early post-Roman Britain.

The English kings introduced the French ducal structure into the British system, and it was initially a mostly royal title (as all new creations during this century have been). In France especially after 1600, however, as well as in Britain, it has evolved into a mostly non-royal title.

The idea that a duke is a royal title, however, is strong in Germany, perhaps stronger than it ever was in Britain, where all the children of the head of some ruling houses are automatically a Herzog or Herzogin, much as imperial offspring were archdukes or archduchesses.

A duchy (or grand duchy) is the territory ruled by a duke (or grand duke) or the lands (and/or incomes) specifically attached to the ducal title. A dukedom is the title itself. In the UK, there are properly only two duchies, those of Lancaster and Cornwall; these are essentially corporations holding properties that provide income for the Queen (who is "Duke" of Lancaster), and the Prince of Wales (who is also the Duke of Cornwall); as only these two dukedoms carry such special "attachments" with the title, duchies are thus a royal preserve.

"Duke" is normally a very exalted title; however, when equating the dignity of some dukes, some insight is needed. For example, Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies created dukes in Naples almost by the gross, and these titles cannot be considered equal to dukes in the British or other continental systems.

9.2. Marquess

Related Terms: marquessate, margravate.

This title glosses to "march lord", i.e. a noble in charge of the marches (the border regions) of a realm in distinction to other lords in more-settled lands. These were essentially warlords with broad powers and in this context, may be thought of as a "palatine" title. In earlier times, it was a rare title; it was later revived as a grade between count and duke.

As a senior title (about two-thirds of British dukes are also marquesses), it is not that common the United Kingdom, at least when compared to other countries (especially France where "petit marquis" was a term of derision).

In Germany, margraves were ruling, heading there own little states and today are still accounted as formerly ruling houses (see the separate heading).

9.3. Earl, Count, and Graf

Related Terms: earldom, comital, countly.

"Earl" is related to Old Norse "jarl", and is equivalent to "count", which itself comes from the Latin comes. This in turn is related to the English word "county", which pretty much explains what a count was: the principal figure of the county. In Roman times, the comes was a courtier, an Imperial official, and actually outranked a dux (duke).

William I of England regarded the Anglo-Saxon "earl" as a synonym for "count", and while this was not correct, it was a practical equivalency. Old English lacked a feminine and thus the French term was adopted for an earl's wife as well as for women who hold earldoms in their own right.

The German word "graf" seems etymologically related to the English "reeve", which comes from the Old English "gerefe". A reeve is an important appointed official, as with the "shire reeve", i.e., the "sheriff". What English divides among several words, German uses a single word with prefixes, and generally it has a broader meaning than English "earl" or "count". "Graf", then, should not be understood as being perfectly equal to "earl" or "count", but as also containing the idea of "reeve", or "important official". In German lands, offices normally thought of as being appointive and held by commoners in Great Britain could be hereditary and noble. The House of Thurn and Taxis, for example, started out life as the Imperial postmasters, a job one would not think of in Britain as ennobling.

Some will maintain that a British earl outranks any continental count. Compared to some other systems, especially those that incorporated the results of the often slapdash practices of older systems (e.g., Italy), there are proportionally fewer British earls than counts.

In France and Italy, the title holder is "Firstname, the Count of (title)", while his family members are, roughly, "First name, of the Count of (title)". This makes countly (and other titles) seem far more common than in the UK. With "count", "title inflation" is particularly notable.

Speaking of title inflation:

Since the late 18th century (even before the Revolution) petty nobles started using titles which were never theirs. No one bothered to rebuke them publicly, and these became known as "titres de courtoisie". These totally invented titles multiplied in the 19th c.

Landgraf / landgrave (along with Pfalzgraf / Count-Palatine) is inserted here with un-prefixed graf mostly because the distinction is difficult to make outside of German. The title is equivalent neither to marquess nor viscount. A Landgraf was lower than Herzog or Markgraf, but definitely above a Graf in the pecking order. When a sovereign title, (as it was in one instance), it would outrank even a (non-ruling) duke or prince.

Regarding the status of the Irish titles provided here (and under "Baron"):

"Ard Tiarna" ("High Lord") and "Tiarna" ("Lord"), respectively in literal translation; the titles properly belonged only to the male holders, and the female titles were courtesy titles only ("Bantiarna" literally means "wife of a Lord"). Women could not, and still cannot, hold Gaelic feudal titles in their own right. There are no equivalent titles for other grades of nobility, as the Gaelic feudal system had fewer levels of heirarchy than the continental or Anglo-Norman systems. In fact, many Irish Lords of great rank, which could appropriately be styled "Ard Tiarna," prefer the simpler style of "Tiarna."

9.4. Viscount

Related Terms: viscountcy or viscounty.

This title is mostly confined to the United Kingdom and France, though it appears rarely in Italy and elsewhere.

This is the leftover title, what the king bestowed on someone who was not important enough to merit being made a count. It's a rather late innovation. It originated in France, as the count's deputy, i.e, the "vice-count".

9.5. Baron

Related Terms: barony, baronial, baronage.

Barons were originally (in Britain) those who held their lands directly from the king. Not all British nobles have baronies and many viscounts, for example, do not. The majority of the nobility in Britain are just plain barons. In the UK, life peers are always barons or baronesses (as with Baroness Thatcher).

Once, a baron was an important noble, especially before the Renaissance. It was the barons who brought King John to heel at Runnymede, and "robber-baron" has entered English as the term for one of the lords who collected "tolls" from Rhine river-traffic. In olden times, when there was little differentiation in degree or rank between neighboring nobles, "baron" could signify any noble, large or small, a meaning with some currency today on the continent, roughly equivalent in meaning to "peer" or "lord" in the UK.

The terms "Baron, Baronin", can be found in use in German lands, but apparently not that commonly. Freiherr and Freifrau are preferred, and there seems to be a perception that "Baron" is bit under a "Freiherr". "Freiherrin" seems to be an obsolete form for a baron's wife. D.A. Willis comments:

Freifrau is a wife of Freiherr, Freiin is his daughter. I used to think that Freiin was an abbreviation of Freiherrin, but I was quickly corrected by several Freiherren and Freiinen (plural of Freiin). This is the only case in German that I am aware of where the wife and daughter have different words for their titles.

The status of barons varies. It can be a very high title or something of little consequence. It is definitely a noble title, however, and needs to be clearly distinguished from "baronet".

9.6. Baronet

Related Terms: baronetcy, baronetage.

This may be thought of as a hereditary knighthood. For convenience, it may also be thought of as a noble title, though there are those who would disagree, at least as used in the British system. A baronet is certainly not a peer; in the United Kingdom, baronets are not entitled to a seat in the House of Lords (unless, of course, they additionally hold a peerage). Guy Stair Sainty writes: "In Germany the rank of knight was hereditary, but it was always viewed differently from knighthood earned."

The German "Ritter", when part of a last name, indicates the German equivalent of a baronetcy. A woman holding a baronetcy in her own right is termed a baronetess.

When one picks through lesser German titles, such things as "Waldgraf", Rheingraf", "Burggraf" and the such pop up. On the whole, these seem obsolete, yet, there are a few families who cling to them; they are also encountered on title-lists of otherwise far more exalted personages. The German system was more flexible when it came to titles; as has been demonstrated, it was also broader in its definition of nobility. Since we have been using the British system to classify titles, these are placed here at the end, somewhere between-and-after the British sense of Baronet-as-a-knight and Baronet-as-petty-noble.

Some more details glossary of title's and ranks according to country: