Earl

An Earl or Jarl was an Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian title, meaning chieftain and it referred especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages, whereas, in Britain, it became synonymous with count.

History

See Ríg for the account in Norse mythology of the warrior Jarl or Ríg-Jarl presented as the ancestor of the class of warrior-nobles.

Related Topics:
Ríg - Norse mythology

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some dozen runic inscriptions on rune stones and metal pieces exist containing the phrase ekerilaR. The first word ek means "I", whereas the meaning of the word erilaR is unclear. Some believe it shall be read out "I, the Herul", others say it mean "I, the rune-carver" but the most widespread interpretation in modern research is that it actually means "I, the Jarl".

Related Topics:
Rune stone - Herul

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See also: Birger Jarl

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England

After the Norman Conquest the largest secular subdivision in England was the shire. This had not been the case in Anglo-Saxon England when some shires were grouped together into larger units known as earldoms, headed by an ealdorman or earl. Under Edward the Confessor earldoms like Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria -- names that represent earlier independent kingdoms -- were much larger than any shire. These earldoms disappeared soon after the Conquest. The Normans did appoint earls; however, they were associated with only a single shire at most. There was no administrative layer larger than the shire after the Norman Conquest.

Related Topics:
Norman Conquest - Shire - Anglo-Saxon - Edward the Confessor

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Earls originally functioned essentially as royal governors. The English kings found it dangerous to give additional power to already powerful aristocrats, and so gradually sheriffs assumed the governing role. The details of this transition remain obscure, since earls in more peripheral areas (such as the Scottish and Welsh marches and Cornwall) retained some viceregal powers long after other earls had lost them. The loosening of central authority during the Anarchy also complicates any smooth description of the changeover.

Related Topics:
Power - Aristocrats - Sheriffs - Marches - Cornwall - The Anarchy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A loose connection between earls and shires remained for a long time after authority had moved over to the sheriffs. An official defining characteristic of an earl consisted of the receipt of the "third penny" of the revenues of justice of a shire. Thus every earl had an association with some shire, and very often a new creation of an earldom would take place in favor of the county where the new earl already had large estates and local influence.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Also, due to the this association of earls and shires, the medieval practice could remain somewhat loose regarding the precise name used: no confusion could arise by calling someone earl of a shire, earl of the county town of the shire, or earl of some other prominent place in the shire; these all implied the same. Thus we find the "earl of Shrewsbury" (Shropshire), "earl of Arundel" or "earl of Chichester" (Sussex), "earl of Winchester" (Hampshire), etc. In a few cases the earl was traditionally addressed by his family name, e.g. the "earl Warenne" (in this case the practice may have arisen because these earls had little or no property in Surrey, their official county).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As this last case illustrates, an earl did not always have an intimate association with "his" county. Another example comes from the earls of Oxford, whose property largely lay in Essex. They became earls of Oxford because earls of Essex and of the other nearby shires already existed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Eventually the connection between an earl and a shire disappeared, so that in the present day a number of earldoms take their names from towns, mountains, or simply surnames. Nevertheless, some consider that the earldoms named for counties (or county towns) retain more prestige.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Scotland

Some major earldoms in Scotland originated from the office of mormaor: others developed later by analogy.

Related Topics:
Scotland - Mormaor

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~