[f. EARL sb. + -DOM.] The domain or territory governed by an earl (obs. exc. Hist.); the rank or dignity of an earl.
a. 1123. O. E. Chron., an. 1053 (Laud MS.). Feng Ælfgar eorl to ðam eorldome þe Harold ær ahte.
1297. R. Glouc., 523. Sir Peris de Roches … The king ȝet … erldom of Gloucestre.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 85. Two and þritti schires … þat now beeþ i-cleped erldoms.
1495. Act 2 Hen. VII., xxxiii. § 2. Londes and tenementes parcelles of the seid Erledome of Marche.
1530. Palsgr., 49. Conte, an erledom.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. ii. 93. I clayme the gift,… Th’Earledome of Hertford, and the moueables, Which you haue promised I shall possesse.
1682. Dryden, Satyr, 9.
| Others with titles and new Earldoms Caught, | |
| Wou’d give up all for which the Barons Fought. |
a. 1745. Swift, Lett. (1768), III. 261. [Henry II.] bequeathed that earldom [Anjou] to the second [son] in his last sickness.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 108. Robert Guiscard, about 1059, united in his own person all these earldoms.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 537. His marquisate became extinct; but his son was permitted to inherit the ancient earldom.
1874. Daily News, 17 Feb., 3/4. The accession of Viscount St. Lawrence to the earldom of Howth.
fig. 1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 88. The erldom of enuye and yre he hym graunteþ.
