Count (Lat. comes, in Fr. comte, Span. condé, Ital. conte), the name of a dignity in medieval and modern Europe, to which Earl (q.v.) is in one view supposed to be analogous, the Latin equivalent of each being the same, and the wife of an earl being a countess. On the various significations of the comes of classical times it is unnecessary to enter. Under Constantine the term became an honorary title; and the comites became a sort of council of state both in the eastern and western empire, each having his separate office in the household. The counts under the first two races of Frankish kings were (like those of the lower empire) of various degrees. The count of the palace (comes palatii nostri) was the highest dignitary in the state after the maire of the palace; and in the 11th century he had already acquired a rank apart from that of the other counts. He presided in the court of the sovereign in his absence, and possessed sovereign jurisdiction. The habit of instituting counts-palatine (comites palatii) was adopted by Spain and England. Those counts, again, who, at a later period, as rulers of provinces, had attained to something approaching to sovereign power, exercised also the right of appointing counts-palatine under them—e.g. the Counts of Chartres, of Champagne, of Blois, Toulouse, &c.; and the ancient houses of Chartres and of Blois continued to claim in perpetuity the title of count-palatine as that of their eldest sons. Counts of this sovereign class owed their origin to the feebleness of the later Carolingian kings, under whom they contrived gradually to convert the provinces and towns which they had governed as royal officers into principalities hereditary in their families. It was then that the counts came to be known by the names of their counties. Down to the middle of the 14th century they wielded a most formidable power, somewhat broken by the eventually successful struggle of the towns of Northern France to throw off their yoke. In later times there were numerous mere titular counts, and even before the first revolution many titles of count, believed to be pure assumptions, were recognised by the courtesy of society.
The German word graf, akin (like reeve, grieve, and sheriff) to the Anglo-Saxon geréfa, 'governor,' in time came to be identified with the comes or count, the pfalzgraf being the German equivalent of the comes palatii. In Germany there have been in modern times two classes of counts, one belonging to the Dynastien-adel, or higher nobility—i.e. those families whose head had a seat in the diet or estates of the realm; the other forming the highest class of the lower nobility. Of the former class the larger number, as the price of their acquiescence in the abolition of the old German empire, received the title of prince, and very few now exist. The merely titular counts belonging to the lower nobility are very numerous.
Counterfeit. See COINING.