What is Viscount?
This article is about the title of nobility. You may be looking for the organ company.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wayback Machine|url=http://www.viscountorgans.com|access-date=2025-03-30|website=www.viscountorgans.com}}</ref> A '''Viscount''' ({{lang-fr|vicomte}}, {{lang-la|vicecomes}}) is a member of the European [[nobility]]. A viscount usually [[:wikt:ranks|ranks]] above a [[baron]] and below a [[count]]. The female equivalent is a Viscountess. ==History== ===In France and Western Europe=== Beginning in the early ninth century the [[Carolingian Empire|Carolingian]] [[king]]s appointed counts to run local county governments. The counts used viscounts or deputy counts to assist them.<ref name=Lewis114>Archibald R. Lewis, ''The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050'' (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965), p. 114</ref> The viscounts served as [[:wikt:deputies|deputies]] of the county. They had military, financial, administrative and judicial authority.<ref name=Strayer243>Joseph R. Strayer, 'Viscounts and Viguiers under Philip the Fair', ''Speculum'', Vol. 38, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), p. 243</ref> They carried out court orders and held [[:wikt:courts|courts]] of their own.<ref name=Strayer243/> Viscounts also collected money for the king.<ref name=Strayer243/> Starting with the [[reign]] of [[Philip IV of France|Philip the Fair]]{{efn|Philip [[:en:wikt:reorganized|reorganized]] his court and used professional civil servants and court [[:wikt:officers|officers]] instead of [[:wikt:advisors|advisors]].<ref name=Magill736.37>''The Middle Ages: Dictionary of World Biography'', Vol 2, ed. Frank N. Magill (Oxford; New York: Routledge, 1998), pp. 736-37</ref> The viscounts served as key local [[:wikt:officials|officials]] the king could rely on. Unlike other officers viscounts could be promoted to higher offices beginning with his reign.<ref name=Magill736.37/>}} they were paid regular salaries.<ref name=Strayer243/> In the early tenth century, viscounts in the south of [[France]] gave themselves th