What is "earldoms"

Usage examples of "earldoms".

Since the witan met wherever the king was and Edward had never been to the north, no national gemot within memory had been held in the northern earldoms of Mercia or Northumbria.

England was divided into earldoms, earldoms into shires and shires into hundreds.

Four of the six great earldoms were held by the family, two-thirds of England were under its rule, and four more sons were growing up and waiting for promotion.

Godwin sent messengers to the King, not threatening him but declaring his loyalty and craving the return of the earldoms that had been taken from him and Harold.

A gemot of the earldoms was summoned in York and Wulfstan spoke to it.

Old chronicles seldom give figures, but it is doubtful that Harold could muster more than two thousand of his own, and a few hundred more from his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine, whose earldoms adjoined his own and extended from Kent to Norfolk.

If they withdrew, they began to argue, would William not leave them alone in their distant earldoms and confirm them in office?