[L., collective deriv. of comes, comit-em, companion, count.]
1. A body of comites or companions; a retinue of warriors or nobles attached to the person of a king or chieftain. b. The status or relationship of such a body to their chief.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. vi. 152. The development of the comitatus into a territorial nobility seems to be a feature peculiar to English History. Ibid., I. vi. 160. The Danish jarl … seems to have been more certainly connected by the tie of comitatus with his king than the Anglo-Saxon ealdor-man.
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., v. 138. The first aristocracy springing from kingly favour consisted of the Comitatus or Companions of the King.
2. An (English) county; as in the legal phrase posse comitatus, q.v.
