LANDGRAVE (formed from the German land, earth, and graff, or grave, judge or count), a name formerly given to those who executed justice in behalf of the emperors, with regard to the internal policy of the country. The title does not seem to have been used before the eleventh century. These judges were first appointed within a certain district of Germany; but in process of time the title became hereditary, and they assumed the sovereignty of the several districts or counties over which they presided. Landgrave is now applied by way of eminence to those sovereign princes of the empire who possess by inheritance certain estates called landgraviates, and of which they receive the investiture from the emperor. There are four princes who have this title, viz. those of Thuringia, Hesse, Alsace, and Leuchtenberg. There are also other landgraves, who are not princes, but counts of the empire.