What exactly is a "Countess"?

Question

What exactly is a "Countess"?

Answer 1

A countess is the wife of an earl or a countess in her own right. She is a member of the peerage,titles handed down through the generations.Peerage titles wer given as gifts/payment for services rendered to the monarch.At one time,in the UK, a peerage title guaranteed the title holder a seat in The House of Lords in Parliament.

In order of precedence(importance) the peerage titles are:Duke/Duchess,Marquess/Marchioness,

Earl/Countess,Baron/Baroness.

Answer 2

A count is a nobleman in European countries; The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The British equivalent is an earl (whose wife is also a "countess", for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term).

Answer 3

The wife of a Count or Earl.

Hierachy of British rule

King/Queen

Prince/Princess

Duke/Duchess

Marquess/Marchioness

Earl/Countess

Count/Countess

Viscount/Viscountess

Baron/Baroness

Lord/Lady can apply to any gentry

Answer 4

a wife of a count or earl. which in peerage falls below a marquess and above a viscount.

Answer 5

A female Count.

Answer 6

I would be the wife of an Earl in England.

Answer 7

The wife of a COUNT in most countries, or of an Earl in Britain.

She CAN be a countess in her on right in some countries, if she is the oldest child surviving when the count dies.  (as daughter of a count).

Answer 8

A nobody who marries a  guy for his title. Social Climber comes to mind.

Answer 9

In the UK it's the wife of an Earl or a female Earl in her own right e.g Patricia Edwina Victoria Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma is the Earl of Mountbatten's daughter and holds the Earldom in her own right as her father had no sons, it will pass to her eldest son on her death.