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VISCOUNT (through O. Fr. viscomte, mo...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 130 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VISCOUNT (through O. Fr. viscomte, mod. vicomte, from See also:Low See also:Lat. See also:vice-comes, cf. Portug. visconde, Ital. visconte)  , the See also:title of the See also:fourth See also:rank of the See also:European See also:nobility . In the See also:British See also:peerage it intervenes between the dignities of See also:earl and See also:baron . The title is now purely one of See also:honour, having See also:long been dissociated from any See also:special See also:office or functions . In the Carolingian See also:epoch the See also:vice-comites, or missi comilis, were the deputies or vicars of the See also:counts, whose See also:official See also:powers they exercised by delegation, and from these the viscounts of the feudal See also:period were undoubtedly derived . Soon after the counts became hereditary the same happened in the See also:case of their lieutenants; e.g. in See also:Narbonne, See also:Nimes and Alby the viscounts had, according to A . See also:Molinier, acquired hereditary rights as See also:early as the beginning of the loth See also:century . Viscountcies thus See also:developed into actual fiefs, with their own See also:jurisdiction, domain and seigniorial rights, and could be divided or even transmitted to See also:females . Viscounts, however, continued for some See also:time to have no more than the status of lieutenants, calling themselves either simply vice-comites, or adding to this title the name of the countship from which they derived their powers . It was not till the 12th century that the universal tendency to territorialize the feudal dominions affected the viscountcies with the See also:rest, and that the viscounts began to take the name of the most important of their patrimonial domains . Thus the viscounts of See also:Poitiers called themselves viscounts of See also:Thouars, and those of See also:Toulouse viscounts of Bruniquel and Montelar . From this time the significance of the title was extremely various . Some viscounts, notably in the duchy of See also:Aquitaine and the See also:county of Toulouse, of which the See also:size made an effective centralized See also:government impossible, were See also:great barons, whose authority extended over whole provinces, and who disputed for See also:power on equal terms with counts and See also:dukes .

Elsewhere, on the other See also:

hand, e.g. in the Ile de See also:France, See also:Champagne, and a great See also:part of See also:Burgundy, the vicomtes continued to be See also:half feudatories, half officials of the counts, with the same functions and rank in the feudal See also:hierarchy as the chatelains; their powers were jealously limited and, with the organization of the See also:system of prevots and baillis in the 12th century, practically disappeared . In the royal domains especially, these See also:petty feudatories could not maintain them-selves against the growing power of the See also:crown, and they were early assimilated to the preoots; thus there is no See also:record of a vicomte at See also:Paris after 1027 . In See also:Normandy, where from the first the central power had been strong, vicomtes appeared at a very early date as deputies of the counts (afterwards dukes) of the See also:Normans: " They are both See also:personal companions and hereditary nobles." When See also:local See also:Norman counts began in the rrth century, some of them had vicomtes under them, but the normal vicomte was still a See also:deputy of the See also:duke, and See also:Henry I. largely replaced the hereditary holders of the vicomtes by officials . " By the time, of the Conqueror the judicial functions of the See also:viscount were fully recognized, and extended over the greater part of Normandy." Eventually almost the whole of Normandy was divided into administrative viscountcies or bailiwicks by the end of the 12th century . When the Normans conquered See also:England, they applied the See also:term viseoiunte or vicecomes to the sheriffs of the See also:English system (see See also:SHERIFF), whose office, how-ever, was quite distinct and was hardly affected by the See also:Conquest . Nearly four centuries later " viscount " was introduced as a peerage See also:style into England, when its See also:king was once more See also:lord of Normandy . See also:John, Lord See also:Beaumont, K.G., who had been created See also:count of-See also:Boulogne in 1436, was made Viscount Beaumont, See also:February 12, 1440, and granted See also:precedence over all barons, which was doubtless the See also:reason for his creation . Within a See also:year the feudal vicomte of Beaumont in Normandy was granted to him and the heirs male of his See also:body on the ground that he traced his descent from that See also:district . In 1446 Lord See also:Bourchier, who held the Norman countship of Eu, was similarly made a viscount . The See also:oldest viscountcy now on the See also:roll is that of See also:Hereford, created in 155o; but the Irish .yiscountcy of Gorman-ston is as old as 1478 . The dignity was sparingly conferred in the peerage of England till See also:recent times, when the number of viscounts was increased by bestowing the dignity on retiring speakers (e.g . Viscounts See also:Canterbury, See also:Hampden, See also:Peel, See also:Selby) and. ministers who accepted peerages (e.g .

Viscounts See also:

Melville, See also:Halifax, See also:Knutsford, See also:Llandaff, See also:Cross, See also:Ridley, See also:Goschen, St Aldwyn, See also:Morley of See also:Blackburn, See also:Wolverhampton) . A viscount is " Right See also:Honourable," and is styled " My Lord." His wife, also " Right Honourable," is a " viscountess," and is styled " My See also:Lady." All their sons and daughters are " Honourable." The coronet first granted by See also:James I. has on the See also:golden circlet a See also:row of fourteen small pearls set in contact, of which number in representations nine are shown . The See also:scarlet See also:parliamentary robe of a viscount has two and a half doublings of See also:ermine . See A . See also:Luchaire, See also:Manuel See also:des institutions francaises (Paris, 1892), bibliography on p . 282; Stapleton s Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae; Powicke's ` The Angevin See also:Administration of Normandy " (Eng . Hist . Rev. vols. xxi., xxii.); Lords' Reports on the Dignity of a Peer; See also:Courthope See also:Nicolas's Historic Peerage .

End of Article: VISCOUNT (through O. Fr. viscomte, mod. vicomte, from Low Lat. vice-comes, cf. Portug. visconde, Ital. visconte)
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