or MARQUESS, a title of honour next in dignity to that of duke. The office of marquis is to guard the frontiers and limits of the kingdom, which were called the marches, from the Teutonic word marche, a limit, as, in particular, were the marches of Wales and Scotland whilst they continued hostile to England. The persons who had command there were called lords marchers or marquesses, whose authority was abolished by statute (27 Hen. VIII. c. 27), though the title had long before been made a mere design of honour. The first English marquis was Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, created Marquis of Dublin in 1385 by Richard II. This title was first known in Scotland in 1599, when the Marquises of Huntly and Hamilton were created. Since the Revolution, this title has been given as a second title on conferring a dukedom. A marquis is created by patent; his mantle is double ermine, three doublings and a half; his title is most noble; and his coronet has pearls and strawberry leaves intermixed round, of equal height.