Editing Count (section)

==Lists of countships <!--preferably weighted lists of major counts and interesting particularities-->==

===Territory of today's France===

====Kingdom of the Western Franks====
Since [[Louis VII of France|Louis VII]] (1137–80), the highest precedence amongst the vassals ([[Prince-bishop]]s and secular nobility) of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief was a ''pairie'', i.e. carried the exclusive rank of ''[[Pairie|pair]]''; within the first (i.e. clerical) and second (noble) estates, the first three of the original twelve ''anciennes pairies'' were ducal, the next three comital ''[[comté-pairie]]s'':
* [[Bishop of Beauvais|Bishop-counts of Beauvais]] (in Picardy)
* [[Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne|Bishop-counts of Châlons]] (in Champagne)
* Bishop-counts of [[Noyon]] (in Picardy)
* [[Counts of Toulouse|Count of Toulouse]], until united to the crown in 1271 by marriage
* [[Count of Flanders]] (Flandres in French), which is in the Low countries and was confiscated in 1299, though returned in 1303
* [[Count of Champagne]], until united to the crown (in 1316 by marriage, conclusively in 1361)
Later other countships (and duchies, even baronies) have been raised to this French peerage, but mostly as [[apanage]]s (for members of the royal house) or for foreigners; after the 16th century all new peerages were always duchies and the medieval countship-peerages had died out, or were held by royal princes

Other French countships of note included those of:
* [[Counts and dukes of Angouleme|Count of Angoulême, later Duke]]
* [[List of Counts and Dukes of Anjou|Count of Anjou, later Duke]]
* [[Rulers of Auvergne|Count of Auvergne]]
* [[Counts and dukes of Bar|Count of Bar, later Duke]]
* [[Count of Blois]]
* [[Count of Boulogne]]
* [[Countship of Foix|Count of Foix]]
* [[Count of Montpensier]]
* [[Count of Poitiers]]

====Parts of today's France long within other kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire====
* [[County of Burgundy|Freigraf ("free count") of Burgundy]] (i.e. present Franche-Comté)
* The [[Dauphiné#The independent state (1040–1349)|Dauphiné]]

===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]]

===In other continental European countries===
==== Holy See ====
{{Further|Papal count}}
Count/Countess was one of the noble titles granted by the Pope as a temporal sovereign, and the title's holder was sometimes informally known as a papal count/papal countess or less so as a Roman count/Roman countess, but mostly as count/countess. The comital title, which could be for life or hereditary, was awarded in various forms by popes and Holy Roman Emperors since the Middle Ages, infrequently before the 14th century, and the pope continued to grant the comital and other noble titles even after 1870, it was largely discontinued in the mid 20th-century, on the accession of [[John XXIII]]. The Papacy and the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]] might appoint counts palatine with no particular territorial fief. Until 1812 in some regions, the purchaser of land designated "feudal" was ennobled by the noble seat that he held and became a ''conte''. This practice ceased with the formal abolition of feudalism in the various principalities of early-19th century Italy, last of all in the [[Papal States]].

==== In Poland ====
{{Main|Noble titles in Poland}}
{{See also|Szlachta}}
Poland was notable throughout its history for not granting titles of nobility. This was on the premise that one could only be born into nobility, outside rare exceptions. Instead, it conferred [[Offices in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|non-hereditary courtly or civic roles]]. The noble titles that were in use on its territory were mostly of foreign provenance and usually subject to the process of [[indygenat]], naturalisation.

==== In Hungary ====
{{Main|Hungarian nobility}}
Somewhat similar to the native privileged class of nobles found in Poland, Hungary also had a class of [[Conditional noble]]s.

====On the Iberian peninsula====

As opposed to the plethora of hollow "gentry" counts, only a few countships ever were important in medieval [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]]; most territory was firmly within the [[Reconquista]] kingdoms before counts could become important. However, during the 19th century, the title, having lost its high rank (equivalent to that of [[Duke]]), proliferated.

=====Portugal=====
{{see also|List of countships in Portugal}}
[[Portugal]] itself started as a countship in 868, but became a [[History of Portugal (1112-1279)|kingdom]] in 1139 (see:''[[County of Portugal]]''). Throughout the [[history of Portugal]], especially during the [[History of Portugal (1834-1910)|constitutional monarchy]] many other countships were created.

=====Spain=====
[[File:Heraldic Crown of Spanish Count.svg|right|thumb|[[Coronet]] of a count (Spanish heraldry)]]
In Spain, no countships of wider importance exist, except in the former Spanish march.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}
*[[County of Barcelona]], the initial core of the [[Principality of Catalonia]], later one of the states of the [[Crown of Aragon]], which became one of the two main components of the Spanish crown.
*[[Count of Aragon]]
*[[Count of Castile]]
*[[Kingdom of Galicia|Count of Galicia]]
*[[Count of Lara]]
*[[Count Cassius]], progenitor of the [[Banu Qasi]]
*[[County of Urgell]], later integrated into the [[Principality of Catalonia]].
*The other [[Catalan counties]] were much smaller and were absorbed early into the [[County of Barcelona]] (between parentheses the annexation year): [[County of Girona]] (897), [[County of Besalú]], [[County of Osona]], which included the nominal [[County of Manresa]] (1111), [[County of Berga]] and [[County of Conflent]] (1117) and [[County of Cerdanya]] (1118). From 1162 these counties, together with that of Barcelona, were merged into the [[Principality of Catalonia]], a sovereign state that absorbed some other counties: [[County of Roussillon]] (1172), [[County of Pallars Jussà]] (1192), [[County of Empúries]] (1402), [[County of Urgell]] (1413) and [[County of Pallars Sobirà]] (1487), giving the Principality its definitive shape.

===South Eastern Europe===
====Bulgaria====
In the [[First Bulgarian Empire]], a ''komit'' was a hereditary provincial ruler under the [[tsar]] documented since the reign of [[Presian I of Bulgaria|Presian]] (836-852)<ref>Лъв Граматик, [http://kroraina.com/NI/izvori/GIBI_V/156.gif Гръцки извори за българската история, т. V, стр. 156]; Жеков, Ж. България и Византия VII-IX в. - военна администрация, Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", София, 2007, {{ISBN|978-954-07-2465-2}}, стр. 254</ref> The [[Cometopuli dynasty|Cometopouli]] dynasty was named after its founder, the ''komit'' of [[Sofia|Sredets]].

====Montenegro and Serbia====
The title of [[Serdar (Ottoman rank)|Serdar]] was used in the [[Principality of Montenegro]] and the [[Principality of Serbia]] as a noble title below that of [[Voivode]] equivalent to that of Count.

=== Crusader states ===
* [[Count of Edessa]]
* [[Count of Tripoli]] (1102–1288)

=== Scandinavia ===

In [[Denmark]] and historically in [[Denmark-Norway]] the title of count (''greve'') is the highest rank of nobility used in the modern period. Some Danish/Dano-Norwegian countships were associated with [[fief]]s, and these counts were known as "feudal counts" ([[Lensgreve (Danish title)|''lensgreve'']]). They rank above ordinary (titular) counts, and their position in the Danish aristocracy as the highest-ranking noblemen is broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries.<ref>Ferdinand Christian Herman von Krogh: ''Den høiere danske Adel. En genealogisk Haandbog'', C. Steen & søn, 1866</ref> With the first free [[Constitution of Denmark]] of 1849 came a complete abolition of the privileges of the nobility. Since then the title of count has been granted only to members of the [[Danish royal family]], either as a replacement for a princely title when marrying a commoner, or in recent times, instead of that title in connection with divorce. Thus the first wife of [[Prince Joachim of Denmark]], the younger son of [[Margrethe II of Denmark]], became [[Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg]] on their divorce—initially retaining her title of princess, but losing it on her remarriage.

In the Middle Ages the title of [[earl|jarl]] (earl) was the highest title of nobility. The title was eventually replaced by the title of duke, but that title was abolished in Denmark and Norway as early as the Middle Ages. Titles were only reintroduced with the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660, with count as the highest title.

In Sweden the rank of count is the highest rank conferred upon nobles in the modern era and are, like their Danish and Norwegian counterparts, broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. Unlike the rest of Scandinavia, the title of duke is still used in Sweden, but only by members of the royal family not considered part of the nobility.