What is the female equivalent of an earl?

Question

Some examples of what I mean are:

Duke/Duchess

Baron/Baroness

Count/Countess

But what is the female form of Earl?

And also, are some of the titles more important or higher ranking than the others? Which ones?

And are there any others titles I'm forgetting? I'm probably not making any sense, lol.

Answer 1

In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. The English never developed a feminine form of earl; the wife of an earl is styled countess

Answer 2

Earl/Lady Dame

Answer 3

Wife of an earl is usually a countess.

Duke/duchess is the highest rank, a duke is generally the cousin or brother of a king or queen.  Duchess may be the wife of a such a person.

A count is higher ranked than an baron or earl, but as far as I know the title is not used in the United Kingdom. I'm not sure that "earl" is much, either.  

Baron is probably the lowest of these ranks and may be a person "raised" to the "peerage" through service to the nation.  In such cases the title can't be inherited.  People like Richard Branson might be candidates for this as long as they have no blotted their copybooks too seriously.

Some of the old upper crust are said to imagine that they outrank the Queen.  

More at

http://www.debretts.co.uk/index.php

Answer 4

The English never developed a feminine form of earl; the wife of an earl is styled countess (the continental equivalent).

The order of the nobility is as follows:

1.Duke- a heriditary title, the highest order of the nobility

2.Marquis - a heriditary title, the 2nd highest order of the nobility

3.Earl - a heriditary title, the 3rd highest order of the nobility

4.Viscount-a heriditary title, the 4th highest order of the nobility

5.Baron- a heriditary title, the 5th highest order of the nobility

Answer 5

EmanC is wrong: there's no such title as "Lady Dame". In the British system a "Dame" is the female equivalent of a knight. So, for example, the actors Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench are equivalent in status.