Editing Graf (section)

=={{anchor|rhinegrave}}Rhinegrave, Wildgrave, Raugrave, Altgrave==
{{main|Waldgrave|Raugrave}}
Unlike the other comital titles, Rhinegrave, Wildgrave ([[Waldgrave]]), [[Raugrave]], and Altgrave are not generic titles. Rather, each is linked to a specific countship, whose unique title emerged during the course of its history. These unusually named countships were equivalent in rank to other Counts of the Empire who were of {{lang|de|[[German nobility#Divisions of nobility|Hochadel]]}} status, being entitled to a shared seat and vote in the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)#Princes|Imperial Diet]] and possessing [[Imperial immediacy]], most of which would be [[German mediatisation|mediatised]] upon dissolution of the Empire in 1806.<ref name="gotha">[[Almanach de Gotha]], ''Salm''. [[Justus Perthes]], 1944, pp. 169, 276, 280. French.</ref>

* Rhinegrave ({{langx|de|Rheingraf}}) was the title of the count of the {{lang|de|[[Rheingau]]|italic=no}}, a county located between {{lang|de|[[Wiesbaden]]|italic=no}} and {{lang|de|[[Lorch (Rheingau)|Lorch]]|italic=no}} on the right bank of the [[Rhine]]. Their castle was known as the [[Rheingrafenstein Castle|{{lang|de|Rheingrafenstein|nocat=y|italic=no}} Castle]]. After the Rhinegraves inherited the Wildgraviate (see below) and parts of the Countship of [[Salm (state)|Salm]], they called themselves ''Wild-and-Rhinegraves of Salm''.<ref name="gotha"/><ref>{{Meyers Online|13|0780|spezialkapitel=Rheingraf}}</ref>
* When the {{lang|de|[[Nahegau]]|italic=no}} (a countship named after the river [[Nahe (Rhine)|Nahe]]) split into two parts in 1113, the counts of the two parts, belonging to the [[House of Salm]], called themselves [[Wildgrave]]s and [[Raugrave]]s, respectively. They were named after the geographic properties of their territories: Wildgrave ({{langx|de|Wildgraf}}; {{langx|la|comes sylvanus}}) after {{lang|de|Wald}} ("forest"), and Raugrave ({{langx|de|Raugraf}}; {{langx|la|comes hirsutus}}) after the rough (i.e. mountainous) terrain.<ref name="gotha"/><ref>{{Meyers Online|13|0605|spezialkapitel=Raugraf}}</ref>
** The first Raugrave was Count {{lang|de|Emich|italic=no}} I (died 1172). The dynasty died out in the 18th century. [[Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine]] purchased the estates, and after 1667 accorded the wife and children of his arguably bigamous ([[morganatic]]) second marriage to Baroness {{lang|de|[[Marie Luise von Degenfeld]]|italic=no}}, the title of "Raugravine/Raugrave".<ref>[http://www.wissen.de/wde/generator/wissen/ressorts/geschichte/index,page=1221956.html Raugraf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070603183856/http://www.wissen.de/wde/generator/wissen/ressorts/geschichte/index,page=1221956.html |date=2007-06-03 }} at wissen.de</ref>
* Altgrave ({{langx|de|Altgraf}}, "old count") was a title used by the counts of [[Lower Salm]] to distinguish themselves from the Wild- and Rhinegraves of Upper Salm, since Lower Salm was the senior branch of the family.<ref name="gotha"/>