at Westminster, 4 February 1512. Left to right: The Marquess of Dorset, Earl of Northumberland, Earl of Surrey, Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl of Essex, Earl of Kent, Earl of Derby, Earl of Wiltshire. From: Parliament Procession Roll of 1512]]An Earl (or Jarl) was an Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian title meaning "chieftain" and referring especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke (hertig/hertug); in Britain, it became the equivalent of the continental count. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. English never developed a feminine form of earl; the wife of an earl is styled countess (the continental equivalent). Etymology for the account in Norse mythology of the warrior Jarl or Ríg-Jarl presented as the ancestor of