This article is about the hereditary title of nobility. For other uses, see Marquess (disambiguation).
"Marquis" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Maquis.
"Marchesa", "Marchese", "Marchioness", "Marquis", "Marquise" and "Marquesa" redirect here. For other uses, see Marchesa (disambiguation), Marchese (disambiguation), Marchioness (disambiguation), Marquis (disambiguation), Marquise (disambiguation) and Marquesa (disambiguation).
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European imperial, royal, noble, gentry and chivalric ranks
A marquess (UK: /ˈmɑːrkwɪs/;[1] French: marquis, [mɑʁki])[2][a] is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is also used to translate equivalent Asian styles, as in Imperial China and Imperial Japan.
In the German lands, a margrave was a ruler of an immediate Imperial territory (examples include the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Margrave of Baden and the Margrave of Bayreuth), not simply a nobleman like a marquess or marquis in Western and Southern Europe. German rulers did not confer the title of marquis; holders of marquisates in Central Europe were largely associated with the Italian and Spanish crowns.
Contents
1Etymology
2Belgium
3Spain
4United Kingdom
5Equivalent non-Western titles
6See also
7Notes
8References
9External links
Etymology
A 17th-century engraving of a marquis in the robe worn during his creation ceremony.
The word marquess entered the English language from the Old French marchis ("ruler of a border area") in the late 13th or early 14th century. The French word was derived from marche ("frontier"), itself descended from the Middle Latin marca ("frontier"), from which the modern English words march and mark also descend. The distinction between governors of frontier territories and interior territories was made as early as the founding of the Roman Empire when some provinces were set aside for administration by the senate and more unpacified or vulnerable provinces were administered by the emperor. The titles "duke" and "count" were similarly distinguished as ranks in the late empire, with dux (literally, "leader") being used for a provincial military governor and the rank of comes (literally "companion," that is, of the Emperor) given to the leader of an active army along the frontier.
Belgium
Several marquesses (Markies/Marquis) lived in Belgium, this title still exists today (see Belgian nobility § "Current marquesses").
Spain
Currently in Spain the rank of Marquess/Marchioness (Marqués/Marquesa) still exists. One hundred forty-two of them are Spanish grandees. Normally a 'marqués is addressed as "Illustrious Sir" (Ilustrísimo Señor), or if he/she is a grandee as "Your Excellency" (Excelentísimo Señor). Examples include Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, 10th Marquis of Villaverde.
United Kingdom
Main article: Marquesses in the United Kingdom
The honorific prefix "The Most Honourable" precedes the name of a marquess or marchioness of the United Kingdom.[3]
In Great Britain and historically in Ireland, the correct spelling of the aristocratic title of this rank is marquess (although on the European mainland and in Canada, the French spelling of marquis is used in English). In Scotland the French spelling is also sometimes used. In Great Britain and historically in Ireland, the title ranks below a duke and above an earl (see "Marquesses in the United Kingdom"). A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is called a marchioness/ˌmɑːrʃəˈnɛs/[4] in Great Britain and Ireland, or a marquise/mɑːrˈkiːz/ elsewhere in Europe. The dignity, rank or position of the title is referred to as a marquisate or marquessate.
The coronet for a marquess in the British realms
The theoretical distinction between a marquess and other titles has, since the Middle Ages, faded into obscurity. In times past, the distinction between a count and a marquess was that the land of a marquess, called a march, was on the border of the country, while a count's land, called a county, often was not. As a result of this, a marquess was trusted to defend and fortify against potentially hostile neighbours and was thus more important and ranked higher than a count. The title is ranked below that of a duke, which was often largely restricted to the royal family.
The rank of marquess was a relatively late introduction to the British peerage: no marcher lords had the rank of marquess, though some were earls. On the evening of the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne explained to her why (from her journals):
I spoke to Ld M. about the numbers of Peers present at the Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented. I observed that there were very few Viscounts, to which he replied "There are very few Viscounts," that they were an old sort of title & not really English; that they came from Vice-Comites; that Dukes & Barons were the only real English titles; — that Marquises were likewise not English, & that people were mere made Marquises, when it was not wished that they should be made Dukes.[5]
Equivalent non-Western titles
The Marquess of Trazegnies
Like other major Western noble titles, marquess (and marquis) is sometimes used to render certain titles in non-Western languages with their own traditions, even though they are, as a rule, historically unrelated and thus hard to compare. However, they are considered "equivalent" in relative rank.
This is the case with:
In ancient China, 侯 (Hóu) was the second of five noble ranks 爵 (Jué) created by King Wu of Zhou and is generally translated as marquess or marquis. In imperial China, 侯 (Hóu) is generally, but not always, a middle-to-high ranking hereditary nobility title. Its exact rank (insofar as Chinese words may be attributed a precise meaning) varies greatly from dynasty to dynasty, and even within a dynasty. It is often created with different sub-ranks.
In Meiji Japan, 侯爵 (Kōshaku), a hereditary peerage (Kazoku) rank, was introduced in 1884, granting a hereditary seat in the upper house of the imperial diet just as a British peerage did (until the House of Lords Act 1999), with the ranks usually rendered as baron, viscount, count, marquis and duke/prince.[6]
In Korea, the title of 현후 (縣侯; Hyeonhu), of which the meaning is "marquess of district", existed for the hereditary nobility in the Goryeo dynasty. It was equivalent to the upper fifth rank of nine bureaucratic orders, and was in the third rank of six nobility orders. In the Joseon dynasty, there was no title equivalent to marquess.
In Vietnam's Annamite realm / empire, hầu (侯) was a senior title of hereditary nobility, equivalent to marquis, for male members of the imperial clan, ranking under hoàng-đế (emperor), vương (king/prince), quốc-công (grand duke/duke of the nation), quận-công (provincial duke) and công (duke, rather like a German Fürst), and above bá (count), tử (viscount) and nam (baron).
See also
Mark (county)
Marquesses in the United Kingdom
List of marquesses in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
List of marquessates in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
^"English: Marquis". Collins Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
^"French: Marquis". Collins Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
^"Marquess and Marchioness". Debrett's. n.d. Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
^"Marchioness". Collins Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
^Queen Victoria's Journals, Thursday 28th June 1838, Buckingham Palace, Princess Beatrice's copies, Volume:4 (1st June 1838–1st October 1838) p. 84, online, accessed May 25, 2013
^Lebra, Takie Sugiyama (1993). Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility. CA, USA: University of California Press. p. 51. ISBN 9780520911796.
References
The Chronological Peerage of England, hereditarytitles.com as of 2 March 2003; [1]; omits Normanby, misspells Hartington as Martington, places Marquess of Lorn and Kintyre in the peerage of England (Scotland is more probable).
EtymologyOnLine
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Buckingham and Normanby, John Sheffield, 1st Duke of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 727–728. — "and in 1694 was made marquess of Normanby"
RoyalArk on non-European dynasties, here China under the Manchu (last) Emperors, see also Glossary, and via Home look up other nations
External links
Media related to Marquesses at Wikimedia Commons
English Journal
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Abbas M, de Kraker MEA, Aghayev E, Astagneau P, Aupee M, Behnke M, Bull A, Choi HJ, de Greeff SC, Elgohari S, Gastmeier P, Harrison W, Koek MBG, Lamagni T, Limon E, Løwer HL, Lyytikäinen O, Marimuthu K, Marquess J, McCann R, Prantner I, Presterl E, Pujol M, Reilly J, Roberts C, Segagni Lusignani L, Si D, Szilágyi E, Tanguy J, Tempone S, Troillet N, Worth LJ, Pittet D, Harbarth S.
The Journal of hospital infection. 2019 Jul;102(3)267-276.
Surveillance of surgical site infections (SSIs) is a core component of effective infection control practices, though its impact has not been quantified on a large scale. To determine the time-trend of SSI rates in surveillance networks. SSI surveillance networks provided procedure-specific data on n
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Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial.
Hernandez AF, Green JB, Janmohamed S, D'Agostino RB, Granger CB, Jones NP, Leiter LA, Rosenberg AE, Sigmon KN, Somerville MC, Thorpe KM, McMurray JJV, Del Prato S, .
Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing card
社会情報学研究 : 広島文化学園大学社会情報学部紀要 = Social information science : journal of the Faculty of Social Information Science, Hiroshima Bunka Gakuen University 22, 1-22, 2017
… Then, after making observations on the thoughts and actions of Burke through letters he frequently exchanged with Marquess of Rockingham et. …
Exploring the Positional Attachment of Glycopeptide/β-lactam Heterodimers
LONG Daniel D.,AGGEN James B.,CHINN Jason,CHOI Seok-Ki,CHRISTENSEN Burton G.,FATHEREE Paul R.,GREEN David,HEGDE Sharath S.,JUDICE J. Kevin,KANIGA Kone,KRAUSE Kevin M.,LEADBETTER Michael,LINSELL Martin S.,MARQUESS Daniel G.,MORAN Edmund J.,NODWELL Matthew B.,PACE John L.,TRAPP Sean G.,TURNER S. Derek
Journal of antibiotics 61(10), 603-614, 2008-10-25
