BURGRAVE

A 'burgrave' is a count of a castle or fortified town. The English form is derived through the French from the German ''Burggraf'' and Dutch (including Flemish dialects) ''burg-'' or ''burch-graeve'' (Mediaeval Latin language ''burcgravius'' or ''burgicomes'').

★ The title is originally equivalent to that of ''castellan'' (Latin: ''castellanus'') or ''châtelain'', meaning keeper of a castle and/or fortified town.

★ In Germany, owing to the peculiar conditions of the Holy Roman Empire, though the office of burgrave had become a sinecure by the end of the 13th century, the title, as borne by feudal nobles having the status of Reichsfürst (Prince of the Empire), obtained a quasi-princely significance.
It was still included among the subsidiary titles of several German (semi-)sovereign princes; and the king of Prussia, whose ancestors were burgraves of Nuremberg for over 200 years, maintained the additional style of ''Burggraf von Nürnberg''.

★ In the Low countries, the rank of ''burggraaf'' developed into the nobiliary equivalent of a viscount (see that article).

★ In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795), the office was of senatorial rank (i.e. entitled to a seat in the upper chamber of the ''sejm'' or diet); with the exception of their primus, the ''burgrabia'' of the former capital Cracow, the castellans were deputies of the (equally senatorial) provincial ''voivode''.

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