Earl Marshal
hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the sovereign of the United Kingdom
Earl Marshal (alternatively marschal or marischal) is a hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the sovereign of the United Kingdom used in England (then, following the Act of Union 1800, in the United Kingdom). He is the eighth of the great officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord High Constable of England and above the Lord High Admiral. The dukes of Norfolk have held the office since 1672.
The current earl marshal is Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk, who inherited the position in June 2002. There were formerly an Earl Marshal of Ireland and an Earl Marischal of Scotland.
Duties
The earl marshal was originally responsible, along with the constable, for the monarch's horses and stables including connected military operations. As a result of the decline of chivalry and sociocultural change, the position of earl marshal has evolved and among his responsibilities today is the organisation of major ceremonial state occasions such as coronations in Westminster Abbey, state funerals, and prescribing the order of ceremony for state openings of Parliament. By virtue of office, the earl marshal is the leading officer of arms in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and certain Commonwealth realms and thus oversees the College of Arms. Likewise, he is the sole judge of the High Court of Chivalry.
History
The office of the royal marshal existed in much of Europe, involving managing horses and protecting the monarch.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Earl Marshal” as hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1265164. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1800, 1672 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Earl Marshal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.