Margrave
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224784461
2008-07-10T12:00:51Z
198.103.104.11
/* Margravial titles in various European languages */
{{Refimprove|date=April 2008}}
'''Margrave''' ({{lang-la|marchio}}) is the [[English language|English]] and [[French language|French]] form (recorded since 1551) of the [[German language|German]] [[title]] '''Markgraf''' (from ''Mark'' "[[Marches|march]]" and ''[[Graf]]'' "[[count]]"<ref>{{cite web|title=Margrave|publisher=1911 Encyclopædia Britannica|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Margrave|accessdate=2008-04-10}}</ref>) and certain equivalent nobiliary ("princely") titles in other languages.
The wife of a margrave is called a ''margravine'' or in German ''Markgräfin''.
==History==
A Markgraf, or margrave, originally functioned as the military [[governor]] of a [[Carolingian]] ''[[Marches|mark]]'', a [[Middle Ages|medieval]] border province. A margrave had [[jurisdiction]] over a march ({{lang-de|Mark}}), which also become known, after his title, as a '''margraviate''' or '''margravate''', strictly speaking the correct word for his office. As outlying areas tended to have great importance to the central [[realm]]s of [[monarch|king]]s and [[prince]]s, and they often became larger than those nearer the interior, margraves often acquired considerably greater power than other [[count]]s of a realm. Being on the border, a Margrave by definition had to maintain armed forces and fortifications which would enable him to withstand an invasion - and these made his position stronger and more independent towards his own sovereign. Moreover, if successful in war, a Margrave might conquer considerable territory which he would tend to keep to himself, acquiring more power and wealth - and in some cases (see below) eventually building himself up as an independent King.
Most Marks and, consequently, their margraves had their base on the Eastern border of the [[Carolingian Empire|Carolingian]] and later [[Holy Roman Empire]]; the [[Breton Mark]] on the Atlantic and the border of peninsular Britanny, and the [[Spanish Mark]] on the [[Muslim]] frontier, including what is now [[Catalonia]], are notable exceptions. The Spanish Mark was to have a considerable importance in the early stages of the [[Reconquista]], with ambitious margraves originally based in the [[Pyrenees]] taking advantage of Muslim [[Al-Andalus]]' disarray in the 11th century to extend their territory southwards, eventually leading to the creation of Christian Kingdoms that would become [[Spain]].
In the modern Holy Roman Empire, two original marches developed into the two most powerful states in Central Europe: the ''[[Margraviate of Brandenburg|Mark Brandenburg]]'' (the nucleus of the later [[Kingdom of Prussia]]) and [[Margraviate of Austria|Austria]] (which became heir to various, mainly 'Hungarian' and 'Burgundian' principalities). Austria was originally called ''Marchia Orientalis'' in Latin, the "eastern borderland", as (originally roughly the present Lower -) Austria formed the eastern outpost of the Holy Roman Empire, on the border with the [[Magyars]] and the [[Slavs]]. During the 19th and 20th centuries the term was sometimes translated as ''[[Ostmark]]'' by some [[Germanophone]]s, but medieval documents attest only the vernacular name ''[[Ostarrîchi]]''.
Another Mark in the south-east, [[March of Styria|Styria]], still appears as ''Steiermark'' in [[German language|German]] today.
In the late Middle Ages, as marches lost their military importance, margraviates developed into hereditary monarchies, comparable in all but name to [[duchy|duchies]]. A unique case was the [[Golden Bull of 1356]] (issued by Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia), recognizing the Margrave of Brandenburg as an [[prince-elector|elector]] of the Holy Roman Empire, membership of the highest college within the Imperial diet carrying the politically significant privilege of being the sole electors of the non-hereditary Emperor, which was previously de facto restricted to dukes and three [[prince-archbishop]]s ([[Electorate of Cologne|Cologne]], [[Electorate of Mainz|Mainz]] and [[Electorate of Trier|Trier]]); other non-ducal lay members would be the King of [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]] and the [[Count palatine|Palatine]] of the Rhenish [[Electoral Palatinate]]. The King of Bohemia himself ruled over the [[Margravate of Moravia]] or appointed a Margrave to that post.
As the title of margrave lost its military connotation, it became more and more used as a mere 'peerage' rank, higher than [[Graf]] ([[count]]) and its associated compound titles such as [[Landgraf]], [[Gefürsteter Graf]] and [[Reichsgraf]], but lower than ''Herzog'' ([[duke]]). At the end of the monarchies in Germany, Italy and Austria, not a single margraviate remained, since they all had been raised to higher titles.
The etymological heir of the margrave, also introduced in countries that never had any margraviates, the [[marquess]] (see that article; their languages may use one or two words, e.g. French ''margrave'' and ''marquis''), still ranks in the British peerage between duke and [[earl]] (equivalent to a continental count).
== Margravial titles in various European languages ==
Languages with a specific title for the margrave (distinct from the later [[marquess]], for which all have a word, if different given in parentheses) include (but often no actual marches existed there, so it only refers to foreign cases) :
* [[Czech language|Czech]] ''Markrabě'' (alongside ''Markýz'')
* [[Danish language|Danish]] ''Markgreve''
* [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ''Markgraaf'' (alongside ''Markies'')
* [[Estonian language|Estonian]] ''Rajakrahv''
* [[French language|French]] ''Margrave'' (alongside ''Marquis'')
* [[Finnish language|Finnish]] ''Rajakreivi'' (alongside ''Markiisi'')
* [[German language|German]] ''Markgraf''
* [[Hungarian language|Hungarian (Magyar)]] ''őrgróf'' (alongside ''Márki'')
* [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] ''Markgreifi''
* [[Italian language|Italian]] ''Margravio'' (alongside ''Marchese'')
* [[Polish language|Polish]] ''Margrabia''
* [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ''Margrave'' (alongside ''Marquês'')
* [[Romanian language|Romanian]] ''Margraf''
* [[Russian language|Russian]] ''Маркграф''
* [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''Margrave'' (alongside ''Marqués/Marquesa'')
* [[Swedish language|Swedish]] ''Markgreve''
==Furthermore==
*Several states have had quite analogous institutions, sometimes also rendered in [[English language|English]] as margrave. For example, on [[England]]'s [[Celt]]ic ([[Wales|Welsh]] and [[Scotland|Scottis]]h) borders, [[Marcher Lords]] were vassals of the [[King of England]] in order to help him defend and expand his realm. Such a lord's [[demesne]] was called a ''[[Marches|march]]''. Compare the English [[county palatine]]. The Marcher Lords were a conspicuous exception to the general structure of English feudalism as set up by [[William the Conqueror]], who made a considerable effort to avoid having too-powerful vassals with a big continuous territory and a strong local power base; the needs of fighting the Welsh and Scots made it necessary to have exactly this kind of vassals at the Marches, who did develop their own territorial ambitions (for example those of [[Chester]]).
* The [[late-medieval]] commanders, fiefholders, of [[Viipuri]]/[[Viborg Castle]] in [[Finland]] (see [[Fief of Viborg]]), the bulwark of the then [[Swedish realm]], at the border against [[Novgorod]]/[[Russia]], did in practice function as margraves having feudal privileges and keeping all the crown's incomes from the fief to use for the defence of the realm's eastern border. Its fiefholders were (almost always) descended from, or married to, the noble family of [[Bååt]] from [[Småland]] in Sweden.
*Marggrabowa is an example of a town whose name comes from a margrave. Located in the [[Mazury|Masurian]] region of [[East Prussia]], Marggrabowa was founded in 1560 by Duke [[Albert of Prussia]], Margrave of [[Brandenburg]]. It has since been renamed to the [[Polish language|Polish]] [[Olecko]].
*The German word "Mark" also has other meanings than the margrave's territorial border area, often with a territorial component, which occur far more numerously then margraviates; so its occurrence in composite place names does not imply whether it was part of a 'margraviate' as such, although 'margrave', or ''Markgraf'', translates as the "count of the marches", originally ruling an area on the border or outlying area of a larger feudal state. Uses of "Mark" in German names are commonly more local, as in the context of a ''Markgenossenschaft'', which means a partially self-governing association of agricultural users of an area; the German name-component ''Mark'' can also be a truncated form of ''Markt'' 'market', as in the small town of Marksuhl in the [[Eisenach]] area of [[Thuringia]], meaning 'market town on the river Suhl'. The non-margravial origin even applies to the [[County of Mark]] and the country of [[Denmark]] (meaning 'march of the Danes', in the sense of border area, yet never under a Margrave but the Danish national kingdom, outside the Holy Roman Empire).
==See also==
*[[Markgräflerland]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:German noble titles]]
[[Category:Noble titles]]
[[Category:Titles of national or ethnic leadership]]
[[Category:Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Marquesses| ]]
[[Category:Counts| ]]
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