vicecomes

Vicecomes is Medieval Latin: vice (in place of) + comes (count, companion). A vicecomes was a deputy count — an officer who administered a county in the count's absence. The title appeared in Carolingian France as vicomte, and the English version, viscount, entered the peerage in 1440 when Henry VI created John Beaumont the first Viscount Beaumont. The title ranks between earl and baron in the English system.

The French vicomte held real administrative power in medieval France. The vicomte governed a vicomté — a territory within a county — and exercised judicial and military authority. The Vicomte de Turenne, the Vicomte de Beziers — these were powerful lordships with independent revenues and fortified strongholds. The deputy had become a lord in his own right, and the title of deputy became a title of sovereignty.

In England, the word 'viscount' initially described the officer known as the sheriff (from Old English scirgerefa, shire-reeve). The sheriff was literally the vice-count — the king's representative in the shire. When viscount became a peerage title in 1440, the administrative function and the aristocratic rank separated. The sheriff kept the job. The viscount got the title. The deputy's name split between the office and the honor.

Modern viscounts in the United Kingdom include Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (the World War II field marshal's descendants), Viscount Astor, and others. The title is often given as a subsidiary title to earls and marquesses, or as a first step into the peerage for commoners elevated for public service. The deputy count's title became the stepping-stone rank — appropriate for a title that was always about being in between.