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A marquess (UK: / ˈ m ɑː (r) k w ɪ s /; [1] French: marquis) [2] [a] is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave).
A woman who holds the rank, or the wife of a marquess, is styled “marchioness.” Marquesses and marchionesses are addressed as “Lord” and “Lady,” respectively, as are the members of all the lower ranks of the peerage.
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marquess, Click Here to see full-size tablea European title of nobility, ranking in modern times immediately below a duke and above a count, or earl. Etymologically the word marquess or margrave denoted a count or earl holding a march, or mark, that is, a frontier district; but this original significance has long been lost. It is one of the five ranks of British nobility and peerage, which, in descending order, are duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron.
In western Europe the Carolingian marchiones or margraves had been royal officials whose duty of defending a frontier might justify an exception being made to the normal rule that no count should hold more than one countship, or county. Their authority was thus not much less than that of a duke; indeed the term Markherzog (“mark duke”) is occasionally found instead of Markgraf (“mark count”). But as conditions on the frontiers or the frontiers themselves were changed, the special importance of the old marches diminished.
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As the great French feudatories’ power grew at the expense of the king’s, the old marquisats were practically lost in the great duchies or countships. Then, with the multiplication of little fiefs, minor counts holding several such lordships took to assuming the style of marquis to distinguish themselves. The rank of a marquis, always inferior to t...
At the end of the Carolingian era, the German kings of the Saxon dynasty, Otto I, Otto II, and Otto III, created a new system of marks in the 10th century, giving particular attention to their eastern frontier. A margrave was expected not only to secure the frontier but also to push it forward into Slav or pagan territory, as did Gero, the Billungs...
The frontier mark in Italy long survived as a major territorial unit, though the original Carolingian demarcations were substantially altered. By the 14th century, however, barons and signori had begun to erect their fiefs into marchesati, after which the title grew to have much the same fate as the French marquisat.
The remnant of the original Carolingian Marca Hispanica was merged in the countship of Barcelona. The first Castilian marquesado was that of Villena (on the Valencian frontier), created for Don Alonso of Aragon in 1376; the Pacheco family, who acquired it from the crown in 1445, subsequently became dukes of Escalona. The next senior marquesado was that of Santillana (1445).
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In England the Late Latin term marchiones was early applied to the lords of the Welsh marches, but it was there used in a sense descriptive only of their lordships’ location near the frontier without implying that they were superior to other earls. In 1385, however, Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, was created Marquess of Dublin with precedence between dukes and earls; the other earls resented this creation, and the patent of the marquessate was revoked in 1386, after its holder had been created Duke of Ireland. John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, was created Marquess of Dorset and of Somerset in 1397, but he was degraded to his former earldom in 1399. When the Commons petitioned for his restoration as Marquess of Dorset in 1402, he objected because of the strangeness of the term in England. In 1443, however, his son Edmund Beaufort was raised to be Marquess of Dorset, after which the title retained its place in the peerage. As earlier creations became extinct or were raised to dukedoms, the premier marquessate of England in the 20th century was that of Winchester, created in 1551.
Marquessates in the peerage of Scotland (to which no further admissions were made after the Union of Scotland and England in 1707) are Angus (1703), Annandale (1701, now extinct), Argyll (1641, now extinct), Atholl (1676), Bambreich (1681, now extinct), Bowmont and Cessford (1707), Clydesdale (1643), Douglas (1633), Dumfriesshire (1684), Graham and Buchanan (1707), Hamilton (1599), Huntly (1599), Kintyre and Lorne (1701), Lothian (1701), March (1672, now extinct), Montrose (1644, now extinct), Ormond (1488, now extinct, a later creation of the same name now being merged with the crown), Queensberry (1682), Tullibardine (1703), Tweeddale (1694), and Wigtown (1602, now extinct).
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
MARQUESS. The second most senior rank in the peerage, beneath duke, is marquess. The marquess stands above the ranks of earl, viscount and baron. The dignity of a marquess is referred to as a marquessate.
A portrait of William Kerr, 4th Marquess of Lothian wearing his British Army uniform. Marquess is a rank of nobility in the peerages of the United Kingdom, ranking below a duke and above an earl. There are currently 35 marquessates.
A Marquess is “Most Honorable”; he is styled “My Lord Marquess” all his younger sons are “Lords” and his daughters “Ladies”; his eldest sons bears his father’s “second title”. The coronet is a golden circlet heightened by four strawberry leaves and as many pearls, arranged alternately.
Marquess. Marquess is one step below the title of Duke, derived from the French title, Marquis. The word Marquess refers to the Marches or borders that run between England, Wales, and Scotland.
