In Great Britain, and historically in Ireland, a marquess ranks below a
duke and above an
earl. A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is a
marchioness . The dignity, rank, or position of the title is a marquisate or marquessate. The
honorific prefix "
The Most Honourable" precedes the name of a marquess or marchioness of the
United Kingdom. In
Great Britain, and historically in
Ireland, the spelling of this title is
marquess. In Scotland, the French spelling
marquis is sometimes used. for a marquess in the British realms The theoretical distinction between a marquess and other titles has, since the
Middle Ages, faded into obscurity. In times past, the distinction between a
count and a marquess was that the land of a marquess, called a
march, was on the border of the country, while a count's land, called a
county, often was not. As a result of this, a marquess was trusted to defend and fortify against potentially hostile neighbours and was thus more important and ranked higher than a count. The title is ranked below that of a
duke, which was often largely restricted to the royal family. The rank of marquess was a relatively late introduction to the British peerage: no
marcher lords had the rank of marquess, though some were
earls. On the evening of the
Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, the Prime Minister
Lord Melbourne explained to her why (from her journals): I spoke to [Lord Melbourne] about the numbers of Peers present at the Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented. I observed that there were very few Viscounts, to which he replied "There are very few
Viscounts," that they were an old sort of title & not really English; that they came from Vice-Comites; that Dukes & Barons were the only real English titles; – that Marquises were likewise not English, & that people were mere made Marquises, when it was not wished that they should be made Dukes. ==Analogous non-Western titles==