dominions whose boundaries were usually those of the castellanies and baronies whose
lords had been persuaded to hold them in fief from the count, and they were held together
largely by those new feudo-vassalic bonds.
The new federal counties varied greatly in extent, from the princely counties of
Champagne and Toulouse, more than 12,300 square miles in area, to the tiny castellanial
counties of Dammartin and Gaure, with areas of less than 100 square miles.
The 102 counties of 1100 were held by seventy-six counts (OFr. cuens, conte, Old
Occitan comte), including the king and seven bishops, and the sixty-seven lay counts
other than the king belonged to forty-six distinct patrilineages. Although the nature and
extent of their authority varied almost as much as their wealth, all counts were relatively
important lords—significantly richer on average than viscounts or simple barons. By
1200, all counties had come to be regarded as fiefs dependent either on the kingdom or
on one of the great principalities, so that from 1202 there were three distinct classes of
count: those who were barons and peers of the realm, those who were only barons of the
realm, and those who were peers and (or) barons of a principality. From ca. 850, the
wives and widows of the more important counts of southern France used the title
“countess” (Lat. comitissa, Old Occitan contesa), and by 1100 the Old French contesse
was also in general use in the north.
Between 1100 and 1500, the essential nature of the French county changed little.
Some sixty-seven of the 102 counties of 1100 survived to 1500, most with only minor
modifications of their boundaries, but others lost their comital title through annexation to
a demesne. After 1237, new baronial counties were normally created by royal letters. The
kings created some thirty-seven new counties in this way between 1314, when
Beaumont-le-Roger was created, and 1498, and the number of counties was further
affected by changes in the boundaries of the kingdom and the evolution of five counties
into duchies between 1360 and 1498. As a result of all these changes, the total number of
counties in France dropped to eighty-four by 1327, but rose again to ninety-five in 1422
and 105 in 1498. The number of counts also tended to decline down to 1327, as certain
powerful princes, especially the king and members of the royal house of Capet,
accumulated growing numbers of counties. The eighty-four counties of 1327 were held
by only fifty-two counts, including thirty-nine lay barons and twenty-seven non-
Capetians, but thereafter all three numbers fluctuated only slightly down to 1515.
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
[See also: COMITES; DUKE/DUCHY; KNIGHTHOOD; NOBILITY]
Boulton, D’A.J.D. Grants of Honour: The Origins of the System of Nobiliary Dignities of
Traditional France, ca. 1100–1515. Forthcoming.
Dhondt, Jan. Études sur la naissance des principautés territoriales en France (IXe–Xe siècles).
Bruges: De Tempel, 1948.
Feuchère, P. “Essai sur l’évolution territoriale des principautés françaises du Xe au XIIIe siècle.”
Moyen âge 58(1952):85–117.
Guilhiermoz, Paul. Essai surl’origine de la noblesse en France au moyen âge. Paris: Picard, 1902.
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