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marquis

 
Dictionary: mar·quis   (mär'kwĭs, mär-kē') pronunciation or mar·quess
(mär'kwĭs)
n., pl., -quis·es (-kwĭ-sĭz), or mar·quis (mär-kēz'), or -quess·es (-kwĭ-sĭz).
  1. A nobleman ranking below a duke and above an earl or a count.
  2. Used as a title for such a nobleman.

[Middle English marques, from Old French marchis, marquis, from marche, border country, of Germanic origin.]


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European title of nobility, ranking in modern times immediately below a duke and above a count or earl. The wife of a marquess is a marchioness or marquise. The term originally denoted a count holding a march, or mark (frontier district).

For more information on marquess, visit Britannica.com.

British History: marquis
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The title of marquis, second to duke in rank, was the last to be introduced into the peerage and was slow to catch on. The first marquis, Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, was made marquis of Dublin in 1385 by Richard II, but within a year had been promoted duke of Ireland. The next, John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, was promoted marquis of Dorset in 1397, degraded in 1399, and offered reinstatement in 1402: he declined, explaining that the title had a foreign flavour. In 1714 there were still only two marquises in the English peerage, compared with 22 dukes and 74 earls.

Wikipedia: Marquess
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Ranks of Nobility
Coronet of an earl
Emperor & Empress
King & Queen
Archduke & Archduchess
Grand Duke & Grand Duchess
Prince & Princess
Infante & Infanta
Duke & Duchess
Marquess & Marchioness
Marquis & Marquise
Margrave & Margravine
Count/Earl & Countess

Viscount & Viscountess
Baron & Baroness
Baronet & Baronetess
Nobile, Edler von, panek
úr - földesúr, Ritter, Erfridder
Hereditary Knight
Black Knight, White Knight, Green Knight
Knight & Dame
A 17th-century engraving of the robe used by a marquis during this creation ceremony.

A marquess (pronounced /ˈmɑrkwɨs/) or marquis (pronounced /mɑrˈkiː/) (from French "marquis") is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European monarchies and some of their colonies. The term is also used to render equivalent oriental styles as in imperial China and Japan. In the British peerage it ranks below a duke and above an earl (see Marquesses in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth). In Europe it is usually equivalent where a cognate title exists. A woman with the rank of marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is a marchioness (in British usage) (pronounced /ˌmɑrʃəˈnɛs/), or a marquise (in Europe, pronounced /mɑrˈkiːz/).

Contents

Marquesal titles in other European languages

The following list may still be incomplete. Feminine forms follow after a slash; many languages have two words, one for the "modern" marquess and one for the original margrave.

In Italy the equivalent modern rank (as opposed to margravio) is that of marchese, the wife of whom is a marchesa, a good example of how several languages adopted a new word derived from marquis for the modern style, thus distinguishing it from the old "military" margraves. Even where neither title was ever used domestically, such duplication to describe foreign titles can exist.

Germanic languages

  • Danish: Markis, Markgreve / Markise, Markgrevinde
  • Dutch: Markgraaf, Markies / Markgravin, Markiezin
  • Faroese: Markgreivi / Markgreivakona
  • German: Markgraf, Marquis / Markgräfin, Marquise or Reichsgraf / Reichsgräfin
  • Icelandic: Markgreifi / Markgreifynja
  • Norwegian: Markis / Markise
  • Scots: Marquis / Marchioness
  • Swedish: Markis, Markgreve / Markisinna, Markgrevinna

Romance languages

Slavonic and Baltic languages

Other languages

  • Albanian: Markiz / Markizë
  • Estonian: Rajakrahv / Rajakrahvinna or simply Markii/Markiis
  • Finnish: Rajakreivi / Rajakreivitär or simply Markiisi /Markiisitar
  • Georgian: Aznauri/Markizi
  • Greek: Μαρκήσιος, Markēsios / Μαρκησία, Markēsía
  • Hungarian: Őrgróf (Márki) / Őrgrófnő (Márkinő) / Őrgrófné (consort of an Őrgróf)
  • Maltese: Markiż / Markiża
  • Turkish: Markiz

Equivalent non-Western titles

Like other major Western noble titles, marquess or 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 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 varies greatly from dynasty to dynasty, and even within a dynasty. It is often created with different sub-ranks.
  • in Meiji Japan, Kōshaku (侯爵), 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 Tony Blair's House of Lords Act 1999), with the ranks usually rendered as baron, viscount, count, marquis and duke. The Japanese rendered these titles in Chinese (though there the titles devaluate when a new generation succeeds), though the Western titles were used in translation.
  • in Korea, Hyeonhu (현후, 縣侯) title, of which meaning is "marquess of district", was existed in Goryeo dynasty for hereditary nobility. It was equivalent to upper fifth rank of nine bureaucratic order, and was in third rank of six nobility order. In Joseon dynasty, there was no title that is equivalent to marquess.
  • in Vietnam's Annamite realm / empire, hau (Hán tự: 侯) was a senior title of hereditary nobility, equivalent to marquis, for male members of the imperial clan, ranking under vuong (king), quoc-cong (grand duke), quan-cong (duke) and cong (prince, but here under duke, rather like a German Fürst), and above ba (count), tu (viscount), nam (baron) and vinh phong (no equivalent).

See also

Notes

^ Although the vast majority of marquessates are named after places, and hence their holders are known as the "Marquess of X", a very few of them are named after surnames (even if not the bearer's own), and hence their holders are known as the "Marquess X". In either case, he is still informally known as "Lord X", regardless whether there is an of in his title, and it is always safe to style him so.

Sources and references


Translations: Marquis
Top

Dansk (Danish)
n. - markis

Nederlands (Dutch)
markies

Français (French)
n. - marquis

Deutsch (German)
n. - Marquis

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μαρκήσιος

Italiano (Italian)
marchese

Português (Portuguese)
n. - marquês (m)

Русский (Russian)
маркиз

Español (Spanish)
n. - marqués

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - markis

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
侯爵

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 侯爵

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 후작

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 侯爵

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ماركيز, لقب نباله بريطاني وأوروبي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מרקיז (דרגת אצולה נמוכה מדוכס), רוזן‬


 
 
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Marquess (family name)
Marquiss (family name)
marquise

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marquess" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more