EARL (AS. eon), Teel. earl, Dan. jar), earl, OS.. OH(;. man. warrior). A title of the British nobility, third in rank under the princes of the blood royal. next to a marquis, and above a viscount. In Anglo-Saxon times the word de noted the primitive noble by birth of the first settlement, the nobilis of the Old Germans, as distinguished from the ceort, or pollution freeman. From this class the magistrates. priests-, and kings were ehosen. But with the development of the royal power in England, and consequently of thanehood, a nobility by service, the corl sank one degree in the social seale, and was merged into the class of thanes, In the later Saxon period the word cod ehanged its signitieance. being used for cal dorm an. This was an administiative officer. the chief magistrate of a shire or cluster of shires. He was originally a viceroy. the subjected king of a conquered district or one of his family, or a near kinsman of the over-king (irtheling). The office might he hereditary, hut it tended to became appointive. The ealdorman was appointed in the general assembly of the nation, and even where the office was hereditary, the eonsent of king and nation was necessary. Ile sat with the Id-hop in the folkmoot of the shire. declaring the secular law, as the bishop did the spiritual. Ile was head of the military levy of the shire, and exercised the royal police jurisdiction.
To maintain his dignity, lie received a third of the profits of the administration of justice in the shire. After the Danish incursions the office became an upper governorship and the incumbent was frequently changed. The Danish word jarl, English eorl, was applied to it. Canute divided England into four earldoms, and there were Live under Edward the Confessor.
1\1lliam the Conqueror, while retaining all the dignity of the office, reduced its power by mak ing it hereditary and giving its judicial func tions to the sheriff or vi•ecomes (vice-earl), his own appointee. The great earldoms were gradually broken up. and the holdings of the
earls scattered through different shire-. William bestowed the title sparingly, hut under his suc cessors. especially during the civil war of Stephen and Matilda, it was lavishly given. This ceased with henry II. The title corresponded with the French comic', an earl's wife being al ways called `countess.' The office of earl re mained essentially a county office, usually taking its name from the shire. The third penny of the pleas was still granted to show this connection, and does not disappear until the thirteenth cen tury, when its place is taken by a fixed -inn called creation money. The earl was the highest in rank of the nobility imtil Edward Ill. created a duke in 1357 and Richard II. a marquis in 1385. He had a hereditary right to a seat in Parliament.
The title was originally conferred by investi ture, the King himself girding on the sword of the county (signifying the temporal authority in the county). Edward TIL, wishing to avoid the hatred caused by his father's investiture of fa vorites. first began the custom of creating earls in Parliament, and also that of investiture by charter or letters patent. Now, only the last named method prevails. The dignity of an earl is not partible. and although it may descend through a woman. it reverts to the Crown in case of coheirs. In the fourteenth century limi tations to heirs male of the body became the rule.
The Dumber of earls varies in the different periods of English history. In the Middle Ages there were very few earls, but the Stuarts great ly increased the number, especially .James I., who sold the dignity for £20.000. Now there are over two hundred earls in the United King dom, and the territorial nature of the dignity has so far disappeared that they even take the titles from their names. as did Earl Grey and Earl Russell. The earl's coronet is a gold circlet. with light spikes, on the tips of which are pearls alternating with strawberry-leaves.