A marquess is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is used to translate equivalent Asian styles, as in Imperial China and Imperial Japan. German rulers did not confer the title of marquis; the word marquess entered the English language from the Old French marchis in the late 13th or early 14th century. The French word was derived from marche, itself descended from the Middle Latin marca, from which the modern English words march and mark descend; the distinction between governors of frontier territories and interior territories was made as early as the founding of the Roman Empire when some provinces were set aside for administration by the senate and more unpacified or vulnerable provinces were administered by the emperor. The titles "duke" and "count" were distinguished as ranks in the late empire, with dux being used for a provincial military governor and the rank of comes given to the leader of an active army along the frontier.

Several marquesses lived in Belgium. In Spain the rank of Marquess/Marchioness still exists. One hundred forty-two of them are Spanish grandees. A'marqués is addressed as "Illustrious Sir", or if he/she is a grandee as "Your Excellency". Examples include the Marquess of Aguilar de Campoo, Grandee of Spain The honorific prefix "The Most Honourable" precedes the name of a marquess or marchioness of the United Kingdom. In Great Britain and in Ireland, the correct spelling of the aristocratic title of this rank is marquess. In Scotland the French spelling is sometimes used. In Great Britain and in Ireland, the title ranks below a duke and above an earl. A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is called a marchioness in Great Britain and Ireland, or a marquise elsewhere in Europe; the dignity, rank or position of the title is referred to as a marquessate. The theoretical distinction between a marquess and other titles has, since the Middle Ages, faded into obscurity. In times past, the distinction between a count and a marquess was that the land of a marquess, called a march, was on the border of the country, while a count's land, called a county was not.

As a result of this, a marquess was trusted to defend and fortify against hostile neighbours and was thus more important and ranked higher than a count. The title is ranked below that of a duke, largely restricted to the royal family; the rank of marquess was a late introduction to the British peerage: no marcher lords had the rank of marquess, though some were earls. On the evening of the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne explained to her why: I spoke to Ld M. about the numbers of Peers present at the Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented. I observed that there were few Viscounts, to which he replied "There are few Viscounts," that they were an old sort of title & not English. Like other major Western noble titles, marquess is sometimes used to render certain titles in non-Western languages with their own traditions though they are, as a rule unrelated and thus hard to compare. However, they are considered "equivalent" in relative rank; this is the case with: In ancient China, 侯 was the second of five noble ranks 爵 created by King Wu of Zhou and is translated as marquess or marquis.

In imperial China, 侯 is but not always, a middle-to-high ranking hereditary nobility title. Its exact rank varies from dynasty to dynasty, within a dynasty, it is created with different sub-ranks. In Meiji Japan, 侯爵, a hereditary peerage rank, was introduced in 1884, granting a hereditary seat in the upper house of the imperial diet just as a British peerage did, with the ranks rendered as baron, count and duke/prince. In Korea, the title of 현후, of which the meaning is "marquess of district", existed for the hereditary nobility in the Goryeo dynasty, it was equivalent to the upper fifth rank of nine bureaucratic orders, was in the third rank of six nobility orders. In the Joseon dynasty, there was no title equivalent to marquess. In Vietnam's Annamite realm / empire, hầu was a senior title of hereditary nobility, equivalent to marquis, for male members of the imperial clan, ranking under hoàng-đế, vương, quốc-công, quận-công and công, above bá, tử and nam; the Chronological Peerage of England, hereditarytitles.com as of 2 March 2003.

EtymologyOnLine Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Buckingham and Norman

Mark Timothy Kolesar is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey centre who played two seasons in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kolesar was born in Manitoba, he started the notable part of his hockey career with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL in 1991. Kolesar did not start producing until his second year, but by his third year with the team he was scoring at a point-per-game clip; this offensive production got the attention of the Toronto Maple Leafs who signed him to a contract on 24 May 1994. Kolesar played the next season with Toronto's AHL affiliate, the St. John's Maple Leafs, managed to get 30 points in his first pro season; the next year, the 1995–96 season, would be Kolesar's best year in hockey. He played 21 games with the Leafs, managed to play 3 games in the playoffs scoring a shorthanded goal in the club's playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. Kolesar only played 7 games with the Leafs the next year, he never played in the NHL again after that, he did not retire, though, he continued to play in England, a one-game stint in Italy.

He finished up his career in 2003–04 in the Central Hockey League with the Wichita Thunder. Mark Kolesar is now an assistant coach for the Brandon AAA Midget Wheat Kings Mark Kolesar career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database Total Hockey ISBN 1-892129-85-X

James R. Bennett was an American Republican politician from Alabama. From 1978 to 1983, he served as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and as a member of the Alabama Senate between 1983 and 1993, he went on to serve as Secretary of State of Alabama, from 1993 to 2003 and from 2013 to 2015. Born in Iowa in 1940, Bennett graduated from Grundy County High School, Tracy City, Tennessee, in 1957, he moved to Alabama shortly after to study at Jacksonville State University, from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1962. He was a member of the Epsilon Nu chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. From 1961 to 1971, Bennett was a reporter for the Birmingham Post-Herald. During his time as a reporter, he found himself in Birmingham in 1963, where he witnessed the use of fire hoses, directed by Bull Connor, on civil rights protesters. In 1969, he was selected for a national award by the American Political Science Association for his reporting on public affairs, before completing his master's degree at the University of Alabama in 1980.

From 1978 to 1983, he served as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives. Prior to his appointment as Alabama's 49th Secretary of State, he served from 1983 to 1993 as a member of the Alabama Senate, he became secretary of state of Alabama, having been appointed to fill a vacancy in 1993 and subsequently elected to two terms in his own right in 1994, as a Democrat, 1998, as a Republican. Following his tenure as secretary of state, he was appointed as commissioner of the Alabama Department of Labor in the Cabinet of Governor Bob Riley in July 2003 and reappointed by Governor Robert Bentley in January 2011, he retired in 2012. After the resignation of Beth Chapman as Secretary of State in 2013, Governor Robert J. Bentley appointed Bennett to replace her, marking the fourth time Bennett served as Alabama's chief elections official, he was politically active up until his death. His successor John Merrill noted that Bennett secured a position as a presidential elector for the 2016 presidential election the day before his death.

In 2006, Bennett was named a Signature Sinfonian by the national fraternity for his public service career. He served as chairman of the Board of Trustees at Jacksonville State, of which he had been a member since 1985, was president of the National Association of Secretaries of State from 1999 to 2000, he authored several history books including Historic Birmingham and Jefferson County, published in 2008, Tannehill and the Growth of the Alabama Iron Industry, published in 1999. Bennett died of cancer on August 17, 2016, he was survived by his wife and two children