Editing Graf (section)

==History==
{{See also|Count}}
The [[count|comital]] title of {{lang|de|Graf}} is common to various European territories where German was or is the official or vernacular tongue, including Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Alsace, the [[Baltic states]] and other former [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg crown lands]]. In Germany, all legal privileges of the nobility have been officially abolished since August 1919, and {{lang|de|Graf}}, like any other hereditary title, is treated as part of the legal surname.<ref>[[Weimar Constitution#Section 1: The Individual|Weimar Constitution]] Article 109, sentence 2</ref> In Austria, its use is banned by law, as with all hereditary titles and [[nobiliary particle]]s. In [[Switzerland]], the title is not acknowledged in law. In the monarchies of Belgium, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, where German is one of the [[official language]]s, the title continues to be recognised, used and, occasionally, granted by the national {{lang|la|[[fount of honour|fons honorum]]}}, the reigning monarch.

From the [[Middle Ages]], a {{lang|de|Graf}} usually ruled a territory known as a {{lang|de|Grafschaft}} ('county'). In the [[Holy Roman Empire]], many Imperial counts ({{lang|de|[[Imperial Count|Reichsgraf]]en}}) retained near-sovereign authority in their lands until the [[Congress of Vienna]] subordinated them to larger, neighboring monarchs through the [[German mediatisation]] process of 1815, preserving their precedence, allocating familial representation in local legislatures, some jurisdictional immunities and the prestigious privilege of {{lang|de|[[Royal intermarriage|Ebenbürtigkeit]]}}. In regions of Europe where nobles did not actually exercise {{lang|de|[[Landeshoheit]]}} over the populace, the {{lang|de|Graf}} long retained specific [[feudalism|feudal]] privileges over the land and in the villages in his county, such as rights to [[peasant]] service, to periodic fees for use of common infrastructure such as timber, mills, wells and pastures.

These rights gradually eroded and were largely eliminated before or during the 19th century, leaving the {{lang|de|Graf}} with few legal privileges beyond land ownership, although comital estates in German-speaking lands were often substantial. Nonetheless, various rulers in German-speaking lands granted the hereditary title of {{lang|de|Graf}} to their subjects, particularly after the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Although lacking the prestige and powers of the former Imperial counts, they remained legal members of the local nobility, entitled to whatever minor privileges were recognised at the ruler's court. The title, translated as "count", was generally accepted and used in other countries by custom.

Many [[Continental Europe|Continental]] counts in Germany and Austria were titled {{lang|de|Graf}} without any additional qualification. Except in the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] from the 19th century, the title of {{lang|de|Graf}} was not restricted by [[primogeniture]]: it was inherited by all legitimate descendants in the [[patrilineality|male line]] of the original titleholder, the males also inheriting an approximately equal share of the family's wealth and estates. Usually a hyphenated suffix indicated which of the familial lands a particular line of counts held, e.g. {{lang|de|[[Castell-Rudenhausen]]|italic=no}}.

In the medieval Holy Roman Empire, some counts took or were granted unique variations of the {{lang|de|gräfliche}} title, often relating to a specific domain or jurisdiction of responsibility, e.g. {{lang|de|[[Landgrave|Landgraf]]}}, {{lang|de|[[Margrave|Markgraf]]}}, {{lang|de|Pfalzgraf}} ([[Count Palatine]]), {{lang|de|[[Burgrave|Burggraf]]}}, {{lang|de|Wildgraf}}, {{lang|de|Waldgraf}}, {{lang|de|Altgraf}}, {{lang|de|Raugraf}}, etc. Although as a title {{lang|de|Graf}} ranked, officially, below those of {{lang|de|[[Herzog]]}} (duke) and {{lang|de|[[Fürst]]}} (prince), the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] could and did recognise unique concessions of authority or rank to some of these nobles, raising them to the status of {{lang|de|gefürsteter Graf}} or "princely count". But a {{lang|de|grafliche}} title with such a prefix did not always signify a higher than comital rank or membership in the {{lang|de|Hochadel}}. Only the more important of these titles, historically associated with degrees of sovereignty, remained in use by the 19th century, specifically {{lang|de|Markgraf}} and {{lang|de|Landgraf}}.

In Russia, the title of ''Graf'' ({{langx|ru|Граф}}; feminine: Графиня, [[Romanization of Russian|romanized]] ''Grafinya'') was introduced by [[Peter the Great]]. The first Russian ''graf'' (or count) was [[Boris Petrovich Sheremetev]], elevated to this dignity in 1706 for the pacification of the {{Ill|Astrakhan uprising (1705–1706)|ru|Астраханское восстание|vertical-align=sup}}. Then Peter granted six more ''graf'' dignities. Initially, when someone was elevated to the ''graf's'' dignity of the [[Russian Empire]], the elevated person's recognition by the German Emperor in the same dignity of the Holy Roman Empire was required. Subsequently, the latter ceased to be obligatory.{{Sfn|Arsenyev|Petrushevsky|1893}}