Viscount

The word "Viscount" comes from the ancient French visconte (modern French : vicomte ), from the word from medieval Latin vicecomitem , accusative from vicecomes , from late Latin vice- "assistant" + Latin comes "companion, delegate of the emperor, later - count .

Thus, the viscount is the deputy of the count, “vice-conte”.

The word Viscount in Britain corresponds to the Anglo-Saxon shire reeve , from which comes the name of the non-noble, appointed by the king sheriff's post.

The early Viscounts did not receive their title from the monarch and did not inherit it, but were appointed counts. But subsequently they began to establish the inherited rule of lato sensu .

For the first time, the Viscount was recorded as a British peering in 1440 , when John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont , was made by King Henry VI .

Viscount has a "Viscount". The female equivalent of Viscount is the Viscountess .

• In British practice, the Viscount title can be either a toponym, or a surname, or sometimes a combination of both. In any case, an appeal to the viscount is usually “The Viscount X” or “The Viscount X of Y”. Examples: The Viscount Falmouth ( toponym ); The Viscount Hardinge ( last name ); The Viscount Gage of Castle Island ( surname from a toponym ); and The Viscount Combermere of Bhurtpore ( toponym from toponym ). There is an exception for Viscounts in Scottish peerage, referring to them as “The Viscount of X”, for example: The Viscount of Arbuthnott (last name).

• The British Viscount is called Lord X in conversation, and his wife, Lady X. The Viscount's children are called The Honourable [ First Name] [Last Name] .

• The peculiarity of Britain is the use of the Viscount subordinate title as a courtesy title for the descendants of the Duke or Marquis. The heir to the peer is sometimes called the Viscount, if the second senior title of the head of the family is Viscount. For example, Earl Howe's eldest son is Viscount Curzon , because this is the second seniority title for the Earl.

In the UK, a Viscount crown has 16 silver beads around its rib. Like all heraldic crowns, it is worn only at the coronation of a suzerain , but the Viscount has the right to wear a crown of his rank on the coat of arms, above the shield. In other European countries, the crown has a different look (shown in the figures).

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  in the heraldic tradition of Great Britain

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  in the heraldic tradition of Belgium

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  in the heraldic traditions of France, Spain, the Netherlands

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  Crown of Viscount and Peer of France

• The title is less common in Italy ( “visconte” ), although there is an example of the Visconti family, the rulers of Milan. In Italy, the youngest son of the conte family (Count), receives a fortified rocca on the outskirts of the territory, and will be called "X, dei conti Y" ("X, from Counts Y"), and not the Viscount.

• In the former kingdom of Portugal, the visconde rank is higher than barão (baron) and lower conde . The first Portuguese Viscountry, D. Leonel de Lima, visconde de Vila Nova de Cerveira, dates from the reign of Afonso IV . In Portugal, approximately 86 new Viscount titles were issued between 1848 and 1880 (Portuguese Wikipedia).

• In the Spanish kingdom, the title was awarded from the reign of Philip IV (1621-1665; Habsburg dynasty) until 1846.

• In Hungarian it happens - vikomt and even vicomte (as in French).

In some languages, including German, there is no etymologically equivalent title: Baron rank lower than Graf . However, in this case, the title can be recognized as approximately equal, etymologically related to “ burggraf ” (except for countries where there is the word “viscount” or related, cf. Italian burgravio along with visconte ). Therefore, in the Dutch language, Burggraaf is a rank higher than Baron, and lower than Graaf (count) in the kingdoms of the Netherlands and Belgium (in Belgium it is similar to French vicomte and German Burggraf ).

In imperial Japan, the viscount corresponded to the title of boobs (see Kazoku's article).

• Raul, Viscount de Brazhelon - the character of the novels “ Twenty Years Later ” and “ Viscount de Brazhelon ” by A. Dumas father .
• John Clayton, Viscount Greystock, better known as Tarzan - the title character in the cycle of novels by Edgar Burroughs .
• Viscount de Lamar - one of the main characters in Guy de Maupassant's novel "Life"
• Viscountess de Granlier - one of the secondary characters in Honore de Balzac's "Gobsec"
• Viscountess de Bosean - one of the cross-cutting characters of The Human Comedy by Honore de Balzac ( Father Gorio , Abandoned Woman)
• Albert, Viscount de Morser - one of the characters in the novel by Alexander Dumas "Count of Monte Cristo"

• Viscount List

• Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 1956, introduction, pp cxx-cxxviii.