marquisate
/ˈmɑːkwɪsət
/(also marquessate)
noun
1The rank of a marquess or marquis.To the old title of earl was added dukedoms which were at first reserved for the royal family, marquisates, baronies, and viscountcies. By the end of Henry VI's reign the peerage had grown to about 60....
- Mary Germain's husband, however, attains his Englishman's idea of happiness not in the form of a ‘baronetcy and an estate’, but the unexpected legacy of a marquisate and an estate.
- Faced with an abler opponent in Frederick Henry and undermined by Olivares, regent for the boy-king Philip IV, he returned to Spain in 1628 and was given a meaningless marquisate.
1.1The territorial lordship or possessions of a marquis or margrave.The Unruochings and the Widonians also acquired the duchies and marquisates of Friuli and Spoleto respectively, while the counts or marquises of Tuscany were descendants of a Boniface who lived in the 820s....
- The title chosen by Earl Grosvenor for his marquisate is, at all events, appropriate; for it is from within the boundaries of the fair City of Westminster that the largest portion of the princely rent-roll of the family is derived.
- This marquisate was merged, for about a century, in the dukedom of Bolton.
Origin
Early 16th century: from marquis, on the pattern of French marquisat, Italian marchesato.