Earl


Earl is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of earl never developed; instead, countess is used.
The title originates in the Old English word eorl, meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form jarl. After the Norman Conquest, it became the equivalent of the continental count. In Scotland, it assimilated the concept of mormaer. Since the 1960s, earldoms have typically been created only for members of the royal family. The last non-royal earldom, Earl of Stockton, was created in 1984 for Harold Macmillan, prime minister from 1957 to 1963.
Alternative names for the rank equivalent to "earl" or "count" in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as the hakushaku of the post-restoration Japanese Imperial era.

Etymology

In the 7th century, the common Old English terms for nobility was wikt:eorl or eorlcund man. However, this was later replaced by the term thegn. In the 11th century, under Danish influence, the Old English title ealdorman became earl, from the Old Norse word jarl. Proto-Norse eril, or the later Old Norse jarl, came to signify the rank of a leader.
The Norman-derived equivalent count was not introduced following the Norman Conquest of England though countess was and is used for the female title. 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".
In the other languages of Great Britain and Ireland, the term is translated as: Welsh iarll, Irish and Scottish Gaelic iarla, Scots erle, eirle or earle, Cornish yurl, yarl, yerl.

England

Anglo-Saxon period

Ealdorman

The office of earl evolved from the ealdorman, an office within Anglo-Saxon government. The English king appointed the ealdorman to be the chief officer in a shire. He commanded the local fyrd and presided over the shire court alongside the bishop. As compensation, he received the third penny: one-third of the shire court's profits and the boroughs' revenues. Initially, the ealdorman governed a single shire. Starting with Edward the Elder, it became customary for one ealdorman to administer three or four shires together as an ealdormanry.

Cnut the Great

During Cnut's reign, ealdorman changed to earl. Cnut's realm, the North Sea Empire, extended beyond England, forcing him to delegate power to earls. Earls were governors or viceroys, ruling in the king's name, keeping the peace, dispensing justice, and raising armies. Like the earlier ealdormen, they received the third penny from their jurisdictions. Earls ranked above thegns in precedence and were the chief counselors in the witan.
The office of earl was not hereditary. While sons of earls could expect to inherit their father's office, this was not automatic. Only the king could make someone an earl.
Initially, Cnut kept Wessex for himself and divided the rest of England into three earldoms. He gave the earldom of East Anglia to Thorkell the Tall and the earldom of Northumbria to Eric. Eadric Streona retained the earldom of Mercia, which he had held since 1007. Cnut gave Godwin the earldom of Wessex in 1018. Eventually Godwin was also granted the earldom of Kent. Thorkell vanished from the records after 1023, and Godwin became the leading earl.
Earldoms were not permanent territorial divisions; kings could transfer shires from one earldom to another. The fact that there was no local government administration beyond the shire also limited the autonomy of the earls. They could not raise taxation, mint coins, issue charters, or hold their own courts.
F. W. Maitland wrote, "with the estates of the earls, we find it impossible to distinguish between private property and official property". He noted the existence of "manors of the shire" and "comital vills" that belonged to the office rather than the officeholder. Stephen Baxter argued that given the evidence, it must be "assumed that the 'comital manors' in each shire could be transferred by the king from one earl to another with relative ease". However, not all scholars agree with the existence of such "comital" property.

Edward the Confessor

During the reign of Edward the Confessor, the earls were still royal officers governing their earldoms in the king's name. However, they were developing more autonomy and becoming a threat to royal power. Three great aristocratic families had emerged: the Godwins of Wessex, Leofric of Mercia, and Siward of Northumbria.
In theory, earls could be removed by the king. Edward deliberately broke the hereditary succession to Northumbria when Earl Siward died in 1055. He ignored the claims of Siward's son, Waltheof, and appointed Tostig Godwinson as earl. The earldom of East Anglia appears to have been used as a training ground for new earls. Nevertheless, the earldoms of Wessex and Mercia were becoming hereditary. For four generations, Mercia was passed from father to son: Leofwine, Leofric, Ælfgar, and Edwin.
To reward Godwin for his support, Edward made his eldest son, Sweyn, an earl in 1043. Harold, Godwin's second oldest son, was made the earl of East Anglia. In 1045, an earldom was created for Godwin's nephew, Beorn Estrithson. After Sweyn left England in disgrace in 1047, some of his estates were taken over by Harold and Beorn. Ralf of Mantes, Edward's Norman nephew, was made earl of Hereford, a territory formerly part of Sweyn's earldom.
In 1053, Harold succeeded his father, and Ælfgar, son of Earl Leofric, became earl of East Anglia. A major reshuffle occurred after both Leofric and Ralf died in 1057. Ælfgar succeeded his father in Mercia, and Gyrth Godwinson took East Anglia. An earldom was created for Leofwine Godwinson out of the south-eastern shires belonging to Harold. In exchange, Harold received Ralf's earldom.
In 1065, a rebellion deposed Tostig and recognised Morcar, the brother of Earl Edwin of Mercia, as Northumbria's new earl. The king accepted this, and Tostig was expelled from England.
In 1066, according to the Domesday Book, the Godwin family estates were valued at £7,000, Earl Leofric of Mercia at £2,400, and Earl Siward of Northumbria at £350. In comparison, the king's lands were valued at £5,000. This concentration of land and wealth in the hands of the earls, and one family in particular, weakened the Crown's authority. The situation was reversed when Harold Godwinson became king, and he was able to restore the Crown's authority.

Norman Conquest

The Norman Conquest of 1066 introduced a new Anglo-Norman aristocracy that gradually replaced the old Anglo-Saxon elite. In Normandy, a duchy in the Kingdom of France, the equivalent of an earl was a count. The definition and powers of French counts varied widely. Some counts were nearly independent rulers who gave only nominal loyalty to the King of France. In Normandy, counts were junior members of the Norman dynasty with responsibility for guarding border regions. In 1066, there were three Norman counts: Richard of Évreux, Robert of Eu, and Robert of Mortain.
William the Conqueror reduced the size of earldoms; those created after 1071 had responsibility for one shire. Like Norman counts, earls became military governors assigned to vulnerable border or coastal areas. To protect the Welsh Marches, the king made Roger de Montgomery the earl of Shrewsbury and Hugh d'Avranches the earl of Chester. Likewise, the king's half-brother Odo of Bayeux was made earl of Kent to guard the English Channel.
After the Revolt of the Earls in 1075, only four earldoms remained, all held by Anglo-Normans: Kent, Shrewsbury, Chester, and Northumbria. This number was reduced to three after 1082 when Odo of Bayeux was arrested and deprived of Kent. At the death of William Rufus in 1100, there were five earldoms: Chester, Shrewsbury, Surrey, Warwick, and Huntingdon–Northampton. In 1122, Henry I made his illegitimate son Robert the earl of Gloucester.
After the Conquest, new earldoms tended to be named for the city and castle in which they were based. Some titles became attached to the family name rather than location. For example, the holder of the earldom of Surrey was more commonly called "Earl Warenne". The same was true of the earldom of Buckingham, whose holder was called "Earl Gifford". These earls may have preferred to be known by family names that were older and more prestigious than their newer territorial designations.

Stephen and Matilda

The number of earls rose from seven in 1135 to twenty in 1141 as King Stephen created twelve new earls to reward supporters during the Anarchy, the civil war fought with his cousin Empress Matilda for the English throne. In 1138, Stephen created eight new earldoms:
  1. Waleran de Beaumont, who was already Count of Meulan in Normandy and the twin brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester, was made earl of Worcester.
  2. Waleran's younger brother Hugh de Beaumont was made earl of Bedford.
  3. Gilbert de Clare was made earl of Pembroke.
  4. Gilbert de Clare, nephew of the Earl of Pembroke, was made earl of Hertford.
  5. William de Aumale was made earl of York in reward for service during the Battle of the Standard.
  6. Robert de Ferrers was made earl of Derby in reward for service during the Battle of the Standard.
  7. William d'Aubigny was made earl of Lincoln.
  8. William de Roumare was made earl of Cambridge.
In 1140, Roumare was given the earldom of Lincoln in exchange for Cambridge, and William d'Aubigny received the earldom of Sussex. The same year, Geoffrey de Mandeville was made earl of Essex, and his is the oldest surviving charter of creation. Around the same time, Hugh Bigod was made earl of Norfolk.
In February 1141, Stephen was captured at the Battle of Lincoln, and Empress Matilda elected "Lady of the English" in April. At this time, she created three earldoms for her own supporters. Her illegitimate brother Reginald de Dunstanville was made earl of Cornwall. Baldwin de Redvers was made earl of Devon, and William de Mohun, lord of Dunster, was made earl of Somerset. Aubrey de Vere was made earl of Oxford in 1142. Sometime around 1143, Matilda's constable Patrick of Salisbury was made earl of Salisbury.
During the Anarchy, earls took advantage of the power vacuum to assume Crown rights. Robert of Gloucester, Patrick of Salisbury, Robert of Leicester, and Henry of Northumbria all minted their own coinage. Earls and barons had also built adulterine castles.