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Graf

(Redirected from Margraviate)

Graf is a German noble title equal in rank to a count or an earl. The comital titles awarded in Holy Roman Empire were often related to the jurisdiction or domain of responsibility and represented special concessions of authority or rank. The territory ruled by a Count is a County. Only the more important titles remained in use until modern times. Many counts were titled Graf without any additional qualification.


German English Comment
Markgraf Margrave or
Marquis
Mark: border province + Graf
Pfalzgraf Count Palatine
or Paladin
Palatinate + Graf
Landgraf Landgrave Land + Graf
Burggraf Burgrave Burg: castle + Graf
Rheingraf Rhinegrave Rhein: Rhine + Graf
Altgraf Altgrave Alt: highlands + Graf
Wildgraf Wildgrave Wild: wilderness + Graf
Raugraf Raugrave Raum: area + Graf
Vizegraf Viscount Vize: substitute + Graf


Contents

Margrave

A Markgraf, or Margrave, was originally the military governor of a Carolingian "Mark" (or March), a medieval border province. As outlying areas tended to be of great importance to the central realms of kings and princes, and they often were larger than those nearer the interior, margraves assumed quite inordinate powers over those of other counts of a realm. The jurisdiction of a margrave was a margraviate. The wife of a margrave is called a margravine.

Most Marks and, consequently, Margraves were to be found on the Eastern border of the Carolingian and later, Holy Roman Empire. One notable exception is the Spanish Mark on the Muslim frontier including what is now Catalonia. In Central Europe the most important provinces so called were the "Mark Brandenburg" and the original territory of Austria (located mostly in modern Lower Austria), which in Latin was called Marchia Orientalis, the "eastern borderland". (During the 19th and 20th century the term was sometimes translated as Ostmark, but in the medieval vernacular only the name Ostarrichi is documented.) Here one has to bear in mind that Austria was the eastern outpost of the Holy Roman Empire, on the border to the Magyars and Slavs. Another Mark in the south-east was Styria, which is still known as Steiermark in German today. Similarly in the north-west there was the "Higher March" (Hohe Mark).

Marggrabova was an example of a town in the eastern Marches of the German Empire, formerly in East Prussia, (renamed Olecko in the Mazury province of Poland), that had been named after margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

Later, the title became hereditary and is now considered the equivalent of a marquess, or marquis in England and France.

Count Palatine

A Pfalzgraf or Count Palatine functioned, especially in medieval times, and particularly during the Holy Roman Empire, as a viceroy and often becoming a more independent ruler of a palatinate. Borne by the Count Palatine of the Rhine and junior branches of his family.

Landgrave

A Landgraf, or Landgrave, was a nobleman of rank or count in Medieval Germany whose jurisdiction stretched over a sometimes quite considerable territory. The title survived from the times of the Holy Roman Empire. The power of a landgrave was often associated with sovereign rights and decision making much greater than that of a count.

It was still occasionally the subsidiary title of such nobility as the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who was the Landgrave of Thuringia, in the first decade of the 20th century but the title was no longer used after World War I. The jurisdiction of a landgrave was a landgraviate and the wife of a landgrave was a landgravine. Examples: Landgrave of Thuringia, Landgrave of Hesse, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg

Burgrave

A Burggraf, or Burgrave, was a 12th and 13th century military and civil judicial governor of a castle, the town it dominated and its immediate surrounding countryside. His jurisdiction was a burgraviate. Later the title became ennobled and hereditary with its own domain. Examples: Burgrave of Nuremberg.

Rhinegrave

A Rheingraf, or Rhinegrave, was a nobleman with the status of a count in the 12th and 13th centuries, the governor of one of the many castles or fortresses along the Rhine River in Western Germany, who had the entitlement of levying tolls for passage along the river.

Altgrave

An Altgraf, or altgrave, was a nobleman of the status of a count who had his dominion in mountainous areas of Germany and the Alpine regions, particularly around mountain passes where he had rights and entitlements of establishing garrisons at such points, and of levying tolls for passage. Originally it was a title of veneration rather than the holding of power.

Wildgrave

A Wiltgraf, Wildgrave, or Waldgrave was originally a nobleman of the status of count who had jurisdiction over uncultivated areas, forests and uninhabited districts. His legal privileges eventually vested in him the power of a chief forester and gamekeeper of a district.

Raugrave

A Raugraf, or Raugrave only held jurisdiction over waste ground and uninhabited districts. The title - since 1667 - was used exclusively by the children of Elector Palatine Karl I's bigamous second marriage and Karl's wife, Marie Louise von Degenfeld.

Viscount

A Vizegraf or Viscount is an almost-a-Count, ranking below the other Counts, but above a Freiherr (Baron). It was often used by the heir to a Graf.

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Last updated: 02-19-2005 10:47:22