Editing Earl (section)

== Scotland ==
{{Further|Peerage of Scotland}}
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2023}}
[[File:Earl coronation robes.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|Earl's [[British coronation|coronation]] robes]]

The oldest earldoms in [[Scotland]] (with the exception of the [[Earldom of Dunbar and March]]) originated from the office of [[mormaer]], such as the [[Mormaer of Fife]], [[Mormaer of Strathearn|of Strathearn]], etc.; subsequent earldoms developed by analogy. The principal distinction between earldom and mormaer is that earldoms were granted as [[fief]]s of the King, while mormaers were virtually independent. The ''earl'' is thought to have been introduced by the [[anglophile]] king [[David I of Scotland|David I]]. While the power attached to the office of earl was swept away in England by the Norman Conquest, in Scotland earldoms retained substantial powers, such as [[regality]] throughout the Middle Ages.

It is important to distinguish between the land controlled directly by the earl, in a landlord-like sense, and the region over which he could exercise his office. Scottish use of Latin terms {{lang|la|provincia}} and {{lang|la|comitatus}} makes the difference clear. Initially these terms were synonymous, as in England, but by the 12th century they were seen as distinct concepts, with ''comitatus'' referring to the land under direct control of the earl, and {{lang|la|provincia}} referring to the province; hence, the ''comitatus'' might now only be a small region of the {{lang|la|provincia}}. Thus, unlike England, the term ''county'', which ultimately evolved from the Latin {{lang|la|comitatus}}, was not historically used for Scotland's main political subdivisions.

[[Sheriff court|Sheriff]]s were introduced at a similar time to earls, but unlike England, where sheriffs were officers who implemented the decisions of the shire court, in Scotland they were specifically charged with upholding the king's interests in the region, thus being more like a [[coroner]]. As such, a parallel system of justice arose, between that provided by magnates (represented by the earls), and that by the king (represented by sheriffs), in a similar way to England having both [[Court Baron|Courts Baron]] and [[Justice of the peace|Magistrate]]s, respectively. Inevitably, this led to a degree of [[forum shopping]], with the king's offering – the Sheriff – gradually winning.

As in England, as the centuries wore on, the term ''earl'' came to be disassociated from the office, and later kings started granting the title of ''earl'' without it, and gradually without even an associated ''comitatus''. By the 16th century there started to be earls of towns, of villages, and even of isolated houses; it had simply become a label for marking status, rather than an office of intrinsic power. In 1746, in the aftermath of the [[Jacobite rising of 1745|Jacobite rising]], the [[Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746|Heritable Jurisdictions Act]] brought the powers of the remaining ancient earldoms under the control of the sheriffs; ''earl'' is now simply a noble rank.