A landgrave was originally a
count who possessed
imperial immediacy, that is, a feudal duty owed directly to the Holy Roman Emperor. His jurisdiction stretched over a sometimes quite considerable territory, which was not subservient to an intermediate power, such as a
duke, a
bishop or
count palatine. The title originated within the
Holy Roman Empire, and was first recorded in
Lower Lotharingia in 1086:
Henry III, Count of Louvain, landgrave of
Brabant. By definition, a landgrave exercised sovereign rights. His decision-making power was comparable to that of a Duke.
Landgrave occasionally continued in use as the subsidiary title of such noblemen as the Grand Duke of
Saxe-Weimar, who functioned as the
Landgrave of Thuringia in the first decade of the 20th century, but the title fell into disuse after
World War II. The jurisdiction of a landgrave was a
landgraviate (), and the wife of a landgrave or a female landgrave was known as a
landgravine (from the German , being the feminine form of ). The term was also used in
the Carolinas (what is now North and South Carolina in the United States) during British rule. A "landgrave" was "a county nobleman in the British, privately held North American colony Carolina, ranking just below the proprietary (chartered equivalent of a royal vassal)." ==Examples==