Counts Arundell of Wardour in The Holy Roman Empire
In 1595, Thomas Arundell, later to become the first Baron Arundell of Wardour, was created a hereditary Count of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Rudolph II for his military service in Hungary against the Turks. This grant occasioned much controversy on his return to England over its effect on his English precedence and the legitimacy of foreign titles in England.
The Arundell family thus held titles of nobility from different countries, governed by different rules. While their English titles normally descend according to strict primogeniture, the title of Count under the law of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austrian Empire belonged equally to all male-line descendants of the original grantee in perpetuity; all male-line descendants of Thomas Arundell were thus sometimes styled "Count" (German: Graf), while female family members were styled "Countess" (Gräfin).
While some authors have interpreted the imperial grant of nobility to mean that all of Thomas Arundell's legitimate descendants are entitled to the title of Count or Countess of the Holy Roman Empire, "...a limitation to heirs general in an Austrian patent is not to be construed in the English sense... in Austria the expression is construed as referring only to a male heir."
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