Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/414

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398
The Rights
Book 1.

which were called the marches, from the teutonic word, marche, a limit: as, in particular, were the marches of Wales and Scotland, while they continued to be enemies countries. The perſons, who had command there, were called lords marchers, or marqueſſes; whoſe authority was aboliſhed by ſtatute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 27: though the title had long before been made a mere enſign of honour; Robert Vere, earl of Oxford, being created marqueſs of Dublin, by Richard II in the eighth year of his reign[1].

3. An earl is a title of nobility ſo antient, that it's original cannot clearly be traced out. Thus much ſeems tolerably certain: that among the Saxons they were called ealdormen, quaſi elder men, ſignifying the ſame as ſenior or ſenator among the Romans and alſo ſchiremen, becauſe they had each of them the civil government of a ſeveral diviſion or ſhire. On the irruption of the Danes, they changed the name to eorles, which, according to Camden[2], ſignified the ſame in their language. In Latin they are called comites (a title firſt uſed in the empire) from being the king's attendants; "a ſocietate nomen ſumpſerunt, reges enim tales ſibi aſſociant[3]." After the Norman Conqueſt they were for ſome time called counts, or countees, from the French; but they did not long retain that name themſelves, though their ſhires are from thence called counties to this day. It is now become a mere title, they having nothing to do with the government of the county; which, as has been more than once obſerved, is now entirely devolved on the ſheriff, the earl's deputy, or vice-comes. In writs, and commiſſions, and other formal instruments, the king, when he mentions any peer of the degree of an earl, frequently ſtiles him "truſty and well beloved couſin:" an appellation as antient as the reign of Henry IV; who being either by his wife, his mother, or his ſiſters, actually related or allied to every earl in the kingdom, artfully and conſtantly acknowleged that connexion in all his letters and other public acts; from whence the uſage has deſcended to his ſucceſſors, though the reaſon has long ago failed.

  1. 2 Inſt. 5.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Bracton. l. 1. c. 8. Flet. l. 1. c. 5.
4. The