Earl

count

 or earl

European title of nobility, ranking in modern times directly below a marquess or (in countries without marquesses) a duke. In England the title of earl is the equivalent of count and ranks above a viscount. The wife of a count or earl is a countess. The Roman comes (“count”) was originally a household companion of the emperor; under the Franks he was a local commander and judge. The counts were later incorporated into the feudal structure, some becoming subordinate to dukes, though a few countships were as great as duchies. As royal authority was reasserted over the feudatories, which took place at different times in the different kingdoms, the counts lost their political authority, though they retained their privileges as members of the nobility.

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earl

1. (in the British Isles) a nobleman ranking below a marquess and above a viscount

2. (in Anglo-Saxon England) a royal governor of any of the large divisions of the kingdom, such as Wessex

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Earl 

in early medieval England, a member of the hereditary nobility, as distinguished from an ordinary freeman, or ceorl. The average size of an earl’s holding was 40 hides. As Anglo-Saxon society became feudalized, the earls, in the late seventh century, became part of the general landed aristocracy required to render state service, the thanes. Since the 11th century the term “earl” has designated a noble rank corresponding to that of count.