A castle on the Welsh marches.

The title ‘marquess’ (or sometimes ‘marquis’) reaches all the way back to the Carolingian monarchs, who appointed royal officials as military governors for their border provinces. (The Carolingians were the dynasty founded by Charles Martel that ruled much of medieval Europe. Charlemange, was one, as were the Kings of France and of the Holy Roman Empire when those two territories survived Charlemange’s Empire.)

These border provinces were called ‘mark lands’ or ‘marches’. The word was Germanic, from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning ‘edge’ or ‘boundary’.

The original Carolingian title for this military governor was markgraf, graf being the word for count. Because keeping the borders safe was a huge part of keeping the kingdom safe, the markgrafs were the most competent lords available, ranked higher than other grafs, and only a little lower than dukes.

The title came down to all the countries that the Carolingians once ruled, or that were influenced by Carolingian rulers. To this day, some provinces in Europe carry evidence of once being borderlands, including La Marche in France, Ostmark in Austria, and the entire country of Denmark (the borderland of the Danes).

As you can see from the table below, the title pops up in some form or other all over Europe.

It was imported to England in the 14^th century. Up until then, the crown had appointed marcher lords. These were earls who governed land on the border with Wales (the Welsh marches) and Scotland (the Scottish marches — the monarchs of both Scotland and England relied on their marcher lords to keep the borders safe). Just as the margraves of the continent were more powerful than other counts, the marcher lords were more powerful than most earls, and governed more than one county.

The term marchis (as it was then) was introduced from France in the late 14^th century. Shades of the old marcher lords survive in the English name for a female holder of the title or wife to the holder of the title: marchioness.

The French spelling became marquis, and that was the form most used in Scotland, but the usual English spelling is marquess, and that is now used today for marquesses of the peerage of Scotland and Ireland, as well as England.

Some sources say that marquess was the usual spelling in England by the 16^th century, but many English marquises were spelling their title the old way all the way through to the end of the 18^th century. I’ve heard quite a bit of discussion about which is correct for English lords of the regency period. In 1802, Debrett’s and other peerage books used marquis. By 1828, they’d changed to marquess. I’ve found both spellings in newspapers of that transition period.

That being the case, I’ve kept my Aldridge as Marquis of Aldridge, since he was born in 1780 and was a marquis from his cradle. His son Jonny will need to become a marquess, I think, in line with the change that had taken place by 1828, not long after his birth.