# Grafschaft

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For other uses, see [Grafschaft (disambiguation)](/source/Grafschaft_(disambiguation)).

A ***Grafschaft*** was originally the name given to the administrative area in the [Holy Roman Empire](/source/Holy_Roman_Empire) over which a count, or *[Graf](/source/Graf)*, presided as [judge](/source/Judge). It is often, therefore, translated as 'county'. The term has survived as a placename in German-speaking countries, for example, [in Germany](/source/Grafschaft,_Rhineland) and [in Switzerland](/source/Grafschaft,_Switzerland).

According to the early Saxon legal document, the *[Sachsenspiegel](/source/Sachsenspiegel)* which dates to around 1230, the *Graf* or count is a special judge (*Sonderrichter*) who, in the name of the king may preside at a juridical court, in certain cases, under the [king's ban](/source/King's_ban), i.e. king's authority. The type of 'ban' cases derived from the nature of the kingdom:

The king elects a man as judge over property and fiefs and over the life of each and every person

— *Ssp. Ldr. III/52,2*

From that followed the exclusive responsibility of the king – and thus the count – to deal with allegations against the nobility. As part of the court "under the king's ban" there was a bench of jurors made up of the nobility, the *Schöffenbarfreien*. The area of the county was roughly that of modern rural German districts or counties (*[Landkreise](/source/Landkreise)*). On the emergence of states in the [Late Middle Ages](/source/Late_Middle_Ages), the acquisition and thus [mediatisation](/source/German_mediatisation) of the counties by the [territorial princes](/source/Territorial_prince) played an important role. The beginning of the late medieval trend towards large [territorial lordships](/source/Territorial_lordship) in the 14th century was simultaneously the end of the *Grafschaft* of the late and high Middle Ages.

In 1521 there were 144 [imperially immediate](/source/Imperially_immediate) (*unmittelbar*) *Grafschaften* in the [Holy Roman Empire](/source/Holy_Roman_Empire), the so-called [imperial counties](/source/Imperial_count) or *Reichsgrafschaften*.

Several rural *[Landkreise](/source/Landkreis)* in [Lower Saxony](/source/Lower_Saxony), whose territorial history goes back to the *Grafschaften*, bear this title in their official names; after the municipal reforms at the end of the 1970s, only the county of *[Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim](/source/Landkreis_Grafschaft_Bentheim)* retains the name.

Not to be confused with *Grafschaften* are the *[Markgrafschaften](/source/Margraviate)* ("margraviates"), *[Pfalzgrafschaften](/source/County_Palatine)* ("counties palatine" or "palatinates") or *[Landgrafschaften](/source/Landgraviate)* ("landgraviates"), which had the same status as [duchies](/source/Duchies). The present-day German federal states of [Brandenburg](/source/Brandenburg) and [Saxony](/source/Saxony) were once margraviates; [Thuringia](/source/Thuringia) and [Hesse](/source/Hesse) were landgraviates. The *[Burggrafen](/source/Burggrave)* ("burggraves" or "burgraves"), who ruled *Burggrafschaften* ("burggraviates" or "burgraviates"), were of equivalent rank to a *Graf* but tended to rule much smaller territories centred on a castle (*Burg*), although some ruled much larger areas (e.g. the [Burgraviate of Nuremberg](/source/Burgraviate_of_Nuremberg)).

## See also

- *[Graf](/source/Graf)*, *[Markgraf](/source/Markgraf)*, *[Landgraf](/source/Landgrave)*, *[Pfalzgraf](/source/Pfalzgraf)*, *[Reichsgraf](/source/Reichsgraf)*, *[Gaugraf](/source/Gaugraf)*, *[Burggraf](/source/Burggraf)*

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Grafschaft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafschaft) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafschaft?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.