MARQUESS

also spelled marquis, feminine marchioness, also called (in Germany) margrave, feminine margravine a European title of nobility, ranking in modern times immediately below a duke and above a count, or earl. Etymologically the word marquess or margrave denoted a count or earl holding a march, or mark, that is, a frontier district; but this original significance has long been lost. In western Europe the Carolingian marchiones or margraves had been royal officials whose duty of defending a frontier might justify an exception being made to the normal rule that no count should hold more than one countship or county. Their authority was thus not much less than that of a duke; indeed the term Markherzog (mark duke) is occasionally found instead of Markgraf (mark count). But as conditions on the frontiers or the frontiers themselves were changed, the special importance of the old marches diminished.