Editing Count (section)

===The Holy Roman Empire===
''See also above for parts of present France''

====In Germany====
{{Main|Graf}}
A ''Graf'' ruled over a territory known as a ''Grafschaft'' ('county'). See also various comital and related titles; especially those actually reigning over a principality: [[Gefürsteter Graf]], [[Landgrave|Landgraf]], [[Reichsgraf]]; compare [[Markgraf]], [[Burggraf]], [[Pfalzgraf]] (''see [[Imperial Estate#Quaternions|Imperial quaternions]]'').

====Northern Italian states====<!-- This section is linked from [[Giulio Masetti]] -->
The title of ''Conte'' is very prolific on the peninsula. In the eleventh century, ''Conti'' like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. Even apparently "lower"-sounding titles, like [[Viscount]], could describe powerful dynasts, such as the [[Visconti of Milan|House of Visconti]] which ruled a major city such as [[Milan]]. The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans, was ''signore'', modeled on the French ''seigneur'', used with the name of the [[fief]]. By the fourteenth century, ''conte'' and the Imperial title ''barone'' were virtually synonymous.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

Some titles of a count, according to the particulars of the patent, might be inherited by the eldest son of a Count. Younger brothers might be distinguished as "X dei conti di Y" ("X of the counts of Y"). However, if there is no male to inherit the title and the count has a daughter, in some regions she could inherit the title.

Many Italian counts left their mark on Italian history as individuals, yet only a few ''contadi'' (countships; the word ''contadini'' for inhabitants of a "county" remains the Italian word for "peasant") were politically significant principalities, notably:
* Norman Count of [[Apulia]]
* [[House of Savoy|Count of Savoy, later Duke]] (also partly in France and in Switzerland)
* [[Asti|Count of Asti]]
* [[Montferrat|Count of Montferrat (Monferrato)]]
* [[Montefeltro|Count of Montefeltro]]
* [[Tusculum|Count of Tusculum]]

====In Austria====
The principalities tended to start out as margraviate or (promoted to) duchy, and became nominal archduchies within the Habsburg dynasty; noteworthy are:
* Count of Tyrol
* [[County of Cilli|Count of Cilli]]
* Count of Schaumburg

==== In the Low Countries ====
Apart from various small ones, significant were:
* in present-day Belgium:
** [[Count of Flanders]] (Vlaanderen in Dutch), but only the small part east of the river Schelde remained within the empire; the far larger west, an original French [[comté-pairie]] became part of the French realm
** [[Count of Hainaut]]
** [[Count of Namur]], later a margraviate
** [[Count of Leuven]] (Louvain), later a dukedom
** [[Count of Loon]]
* in the presentday Netherlands:
** [[Count of Guelders]] later Dukes of Guelders
** [[Count of Holland]]
** [[Count of Zeeland]]
** [[Count of Zutphen]]

==== In Switzerland ====
[[File:DeSalisClothBellonna.jpg|thumb|100px|Comital ephemera: a Count's coronet and crest on a [[doily]].]]
* [[County of Geneva|Count of Geneva]]
* Count of [[Neuchâtel]]
* [[Count of Toggenburg]]
* Count of [[Kyburg, Zurich|Kyburg]]
* [[Count de Salis-Soglio]] (also in the UK, Canada and Australia)
* [[Count de Salis-Seewis]]
* [[Count Panzutti|Count of Panzutti]]