In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which different laws might apply. In both of these senses, marches served a political purpose, such as providing warning of military incursions or regulating cross-border trade. Marches gave rise to titles such as marquess (masculine) or marchioness (feminine) in England, marqués (masculine) and marquesa (feminine) in Spanish-speaker countries, as well as in the Catalan and Galician regions, marquês (masculine) and marquesa (feminine) in Portuguese-speaker countries, markesa (both masculine and feminine) in Euskadi, marquis (masculine) or marquise (feminine) in France and Scotland, margrave (; masculine) or margravine (, feminine) in Germany, and corresponding titles in other European states. Etymology The word "march" derives ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root *mereg-, meaning "edge, boundary". The root *mereg- produced Latin margo ("margin"), Old Irish mruig ("borderland"), Welsh bro ("region, border, valley") and Persian and Armenian marz ("borderland"). The Proto-Germanic *marko gave rise to the Old English word mearc and Frankish marka, as well as Old Norse mörk meaning "borderland, forest", and derived from merki "boundary, sign", denoting a borderland between two centres of power. It seems that in Old English "mark" meant "boundary" or "sign of a boundary", and the meaning only later evolved to encompass "sign" in general, "impression" and "trace". The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia took its name from West Saxon mearc "marches", which in this instance referred explicitly to the territory's position on the Anglo-Saxon frontier with the Romano-British to the west. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, usage of the word spread throughout Europe. The name Denmark preserves the Old Norse cognates merki ("boundary") mörk ("wood", "forest") up to the present. Following the Anschluss, the Nazi German government revived the old name 'Ostmark' for Austria. Historical examples of marches and marks Frankish Empire and successor states Marca Hispanica After some early setbacks, Charlemagne's son Louis ventured beyond the province of Septimania and eventually took Barcelona from the Moorish emir in 801. Thus he established a foothold in the borderland between the Franks and the Moors. The Carolingian "Hispanic Marches" (Marca Hispánica) became a buffer zone ruled by a number of feudal lords, among them the Count of Barcelona. It had its own outlying territories, each ruled by a lesser