Graf Margrave Count Palatine Landgrave Burgrave Rhinegrave

Graf is a German noble title equal in rank to a count or an earl. The comital titles awarded in Holy Roman Empire were often related to the jurisdiction or domain of responsibility and represented special concessions of authority or rank. The territory ruled by a Count is a County. Only the more important titles remained in use until modern times. Many counts were titled Graf without any additional qualification.

1 Margrave

German	English	Comment
Markgraf	Margrave or Marquis	Mark: border province + Graf
Pfalzgraf	Count Palatine or Paladin	Palatinate + Graf
Landgraf	Landgrave	Land + Graf
Burggraf	Burgrave	Burg: castle + Graf
Rheingraf	Rhinegrave	Rhein: Rhine + Graf
Altgraf	Altgrave	Alt: highlands + Graf
Wildgraf	Wildgrave	Wild: wilderness + Graf
Raugraf	Raugrave	Raum: area + Graf
Vizegraf	Viscount	Vize: substitute + Graf

A Markgraf, or Margrave, was originally the military governor of a Carolingian "Mark" (or March), a medieval border province. As outlying areas tended to be of great importance to the central realms of kings and princes, and they often were larger than those nearer the interior, margraves assumed quite inordinate powers over those of other counts of a realm. The jurisdiction of a margrave was a margraviate. The wife of a margrave is called a margravine.

Most Marks and, consequently, Margraves were to be found on the Eastern border of the Carolingian and later, Holy Roman Empire. One notable exception is the Spanish Mark on the Muslim frontier including what is now Catalonia. In Central Europe the most important provinces so called were the "Mark Brandenburg" and AustriaAustria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a federation of nine states. Austria is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the, which in its medieval LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma version was called Marchia Austriaca, the "eastern borderland". Here one has to bear in mind that Austria was the eastern outpost of the Holy Roman Empire, on the border to, first, Eastern ChristianityEastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, especially when speaking more about what they have in common than about the ways in which they differ from Western Christianity. The term may and, later, to IslamCairo Egypt Islm (In Arabic: , "submission (to God)"; In Persian and Urdu: ) is a monotheistic faith and the world's second-largest religion. Followers of Islam, known as Muslims believe that God (or, in Arabic, Allh revealed His Will to Muhammad (c.. Similarly in the north-west there was the "Higher March" ( Hohe MarkMark was a medieval territory in today's North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It comprised the lands north of the Ruhr River. The northern portion (north of the Lippe River) is still called Hohe Mark ("Higher Mark"). The former "Lower Mark" (between Ruhr and).

Marggrabova was an example of a town in the eastern Marches of the German Empire, formerly in East PrussiaEast Prussia ( German: Ostpreussen Polish: Prusy Wschodnie Russian: Vostochnaya Prussiya was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. The northern part of East Prussia corresponds today to Russia's Kaliningrad O, (renamed OleckoThe paragraph Olecko (town) still needs developing. You can help by adding to it. Olecko (town) Olecko is a town in Masuria ( Mazury) province of Poland. History Olecko, (Oletzko) and Margrabowa (Marggrabova) used to be neighbour towns in in East Prussia. in the Mazury province of Poland), that had been named after margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

Later, the title became hereditary and is now considered the equivalent of a marquess, or marquis in England and France.

2 Count Palatine

A Pfalzgraf or Count Palatine functioned, especially in medieval times, and particularly during the Holy Roman Empire, as a viceroy and often becoming a more independent ruler of a palatinate. Borne by the Count Palatine of the Rhine and junior branches of his family.

3 Landgrave

A Landgraf, or Landgrave, was a nobleman of rank or count in Medieval Germany whose jurisdiction stretched over a sometimes quite considerable territory. The title survived from the times of the Holy Roman Empire. The power of a landgrave was often associated with sovereign rights and decision making much greater than that of a count.

It was still occasionally the subsidiary title of such nobility as the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who was the Landgrave of Thuringia, in the first decade of the 20th century but the title was no longer used after World War One. The jurisdiction of a landgrave was a landgraviate and the wife of a landgrave was a landgravine. Examples: Landgrave of Thuringia, Landgrave of Hesse, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg

4 Burgrave

A Burggraf, or Burgrave, was a 12th and 13th century military and civil judicial governor of a castle, the town it dominated and its immediate surrounding countryside. His jurisdiction was a burgraviate. Later the title became ennobled and hereditary with its own domain. Examples: Burgrave of Nuremberg.

5 Rhinegrave

A Rheingraf, or Rhinegrave, was a nobleman with the status of a count in the 12th and 13th centuries, the governor of one of the many castles or fortresses along the Rhine River in Western Germany, who had the entitlement of levying tolls for passage along the river.

6 Altgrave

An Altgraf, or altgrave, was a nobleman of the status of a count who had his dominion in mountainous areas of Germany and the Alpine regions, particularly around mountain passes where he had rights and entitlements of establishing garrisons at such points, and of levying tolls for passage. Originally it was a title of veneration rather than the holding of power.

7 Wildgrave

A Wiltgraf, Wildgrave, or Waldgrave was originally a nobleman of the status of count who had jurisdiction over uncultivated areas, forests and uninhabited districts. His legal privileges eventually vested in him the power of a chief forester and gamekeeper of a district.

8 Raugrave

A Raugraf, or Raugrave only held jurisdiction over waste ground and uninhabited districts. The title - since 1667 - was used exclusively by the children of Elector Palatine Karl I's bigamous second marriage and Karl's wife, Marie Louise von Degenfeld.

9 Viscount

A Vizegraf or Viscount is an almost-a-Count, ranking below the other Counts, but above a Freiherr (Baron). It was often used by the heir to a Graf.

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