In the SCA, "Earl" is an alternate title for "Count " (In the British system, wherein SCA titles are theoretically based, the situation is exactly reversed Anyone looking for perfect consistency and logic in our structures is doomed to frustration )
1) The highest title attainable by an English nobleman who is not of royal blood Word related to Jarl (MEDIEV-L Medieval Terms) 2) Count; highest English title in the Middle Ages (Gies, Joseph and Francis Life in a Medieval Castle, 230)
Noun (Plural: Earls) Middle ranking British nobleman, between Viscount and Marquess This is equivocal to the term "Count" on the continent For example, Earl of Leicester
[fr Anglo-Saxon eorl] The earl, as a royal officer, superseded the ealdorman and was sometimes set over several counties, in the courts of each of which he presided with the bishop of the diocese The English earl was in general entitled to the "third penny", a third of the profits of justice in the shire court In the two great count palatine earldoms of Chester and Durham, the earl possessed regalia, special royal privileges The earl is similar and probably derivative from the Scandinavian jarl and is equivalent in rank of peerage to the continental count