The title Viscount Harcourt has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was first created in Great Britain in 1711 for Simon Harcourt, Lord Chancellor. The third viscount was created Earl Harcourt in 1749.
The ancient family of Harcourt held Stanton Harcourt. Oxfordshire from the 12th century and other later Oxfordshire seats included Cokethorpe House and Nuneham House. In addition they held estates in Staffordshire at Ellenhall Hall and Abbey House, Ranton Priory.
All titles became extinct on the death of the third earl in 1830.
The title was created a second time in 1917 for Lewis Harcourt, son of Sir William Harcourt, both prominent British politicians. (The Harcourts were actually patrilineally Vernons, but had come into the Harcourt estates, and therefore taken that name, through a Harcourt ancestress). The title is now extinct because the first viscount had only one son, and he only daughters.