Earl Cowper

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The title Earl Cowper (pronounced "Cooper") was created once in the Peerage of Great Britain, by George I for William Cowper, his first Lord Chancellor.

On 4 March 1642, the Cowper Baronetcy, of Ratling Court (or Ratlingcourt) in the County of Kent was created for William Cowper in the Baronetage of England.

His great-grandson, Sir William Cowper, 3rd Baronet was created Baron Cowper of Wingham, in the County of Kent in the Peerage of England on 14 December 1706. Lord Cowper was further created on 18 March 1718 Earl Cowper and Viscount Fordwich, in the Peerage of Great Britain. All three titles and the baronetcy became extinct upon the death of the seventh Earl in 1905.

The second Earl Cowper married Lady Henrietta, younger daughter of Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, Earl of Grantham, a relative of the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau, and a count of the Holy Roman Empire. On the death of Lady Cowper's elder sister, Lady Frances Elliot, in 1772, the third Earl became Lord Grantham's heir general, and on 31 January 1778 he was created a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (Reichsfürst) by the Emperor Joseph II. The princely title of the Earls Cowper also expired on the death of the last earl in 1905.

William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple was a younger son of the fifth earl. The Hon. Henry Cowper, second son of the sixth Earl, was Member of Parliament for Hertfordshire for many years. The poet William Cowper (1731-1800) was a grandson of Spencer Cowper, brother of the first Earl.