Baronage

“ For their own objects, the most disorderly Barons might attach themselves to the Commons, to the lower classes, or to the King. Their divisions had, in fact, become party struggles for power.
Now the chief questions at that time exciting England were the position of the Church, the continuation of the war with France, and the management of the finances. On any of these questions the baronage might form itself into parties, which might seek their own advantage by adopting the interests of other sections of society. ”

“ If we review the political situation at the beginning of the 14th century a great change is evident. The line between those members of the baronage in parliament and the rest of the people is firmly and clearly drawn. Tenure as the sole qualification for presence in the national assembly has disappeared, and in its place there Writ Supersedes Tenure appears for the baronage a system of royal selection and for the rest of the people one of representation. ”

“ A guardian could get one tenth of the income of the property during the wardship and a substantial marriage amount when the ward married.
Most earldoms and many baronages came into the royal house by escheat or marriage. The royal house employed many people. The barons developed a class consciousness of aristocracy and became leaders of society. Many men, no matter of whom they held land, sought knighthood. ”

“ If our Angevin king sometimes looks like a stranger amongst us, he was never anything but a stranger among the fellow-countrymen of his wife. Nowhere throughout his whole dominions was a spirit of revolt and insubordination so rife as among the nobles of Poitou and its dependencies; but it was a spirit utterly unlike the feudal pride of the Norman baronage. The endless strife of the Aquitanian nobles with their foreign duke and with each other sprang less from political motives than from a love of strife for its own sake ”

“ But the fall of France was hardly so sudden or so incomprehensible as the ruin at a single blow of a system of warfare, and with it of the political and social fabric which had risen out of that system. Feudalism rested on the superiority of the horseman to the footman, of the mounted noble to the unmounted churl. The real fighting power of a feudal army lay in its knighthood, in the baronage and landowners who took the field, each with his group of esquires and mounted men-at-arms. ”

“ Of these the oldest is that of “count,” which goes back to the comites (companions) of the early Roman emperors (see Count) ; the second is “baron,” originally meaning no more than “man” and so, under the feudal system, the king's “men” par excellence, the great tenants-in-chief of the crown (see Baron) . In England the barons formed and form the body of the peerage, “peer” not being a title of honour, but the description of a status and function bestowed by their creation upon all barons, viscounts, earls, marquesses and dukes (see Peerage) . ”

“ Inasmuch as, for the sake of God, and for the bettering of our realm, and for the more ready healing of the discord which has arisen between us and our barons, we have made all these aforesaid concessions,—wishing them to enjoy for ever entire and firm stability, we make and grant to them the following security: that the barons, namely, may elect at their pleasure twenty five barons from the realm, who ought, with all their strength, to observe, maintain and cause to be observed, the peace and privileges which we have granted to them and confirmed by this our present charter. ”

“ Earls or Counts as distinguished from Barons—The office of Counts—Their condition after the conquest—Counties Palatine in England—Counties Palatine in Ireland—Spiritual Peers—The trials of Noblemen.
In my last lecture I treated of baronies, which are the lowest rank of peerage, and of the right whereby this class of nobles sits in the great council of the nation, and also of the various methods that have prevailed in different ages of creating them; but before I have done with the higher nobility, it will be necessary to say something of earls or counts as distinguished from barons ”

“ A baron appoints three chaplains; a viscount four; an earl and a marquis five; a duke six.
"A peer cannot be put to the rack, even for high treason. A peer cannot be branded on the hand. A peer is a clerk, though he knows not how to read. In law he knows.
"A duke has a right to a canopy, or cloth of state, in all places where the king is not present; a viscount may have one in his house; a baron has a cover of assay, which may be held under his cup while he drinks. A baroness has the right to have her train borne by a man in the presence of a viscountess. ”

“ Of these there were, antiently, two ranks only, in England, Earls and Barons. Indeed, abroad also, to speak properly, there were but two likewise: for there was no difference in power and privilege between the dukes and counts, or earls. But as every earl is a baron, and something more, and as it is a maxim of our law, that every lord of parliament sits there by virtue of his barony, it will, in the first place, be necessary to see what a baron is. ”

“ But the barons, who alone drew and imposed on the prince this memorable charter, were necessitated to insert in it other claused of a more extensive and more beneficent nature: they could not expect the concurrence of the people without comprehending, together with their own, the interest of inferior ranks of men; and all provisions, which the barons, for their own sake, were obliged to make, in order to insure the free and equitable administration of justice, tended directly to the benefit of the whole community. ”

“ Lords of Parliament or Peers—Earls and Barons—The earlier state of Baronies in England—The Barones majores & minores—Barons by writ and by letters patent—The different ranks of Nobility.
Next in rank to the king are the lords, that held immediately of him by military service, as long as that species of tenure subsisted; and whom, from their privilege of sitting in parliament in their own rights, are frequently called Lords of Parliament, and in common speech are called Peers, though that word properly signifies any co-vassals to the same lord. ”

“ It’s all very well for you, with the Manor empty;—but me, with these vulgarians!... Baron, these mortals are beating us: we’re pretty well played out. ‘Played out!’ Look at our very speech: they’ve ruined that. Do I speak like a woman of the day of Good Queen Bess? Do you speak like a baron of—of King—like an ancient baron?”
“You do not,—and it was Stephen,” said the Baron quietly.
“Mark me, Baron, we are near the end. Either Lady Silthirsk or myself leaves Yewcroft. There is no room here for a self-respecting spectre. They use the headsman’s block for mounting on their horses. ”

“ In the church below the lips are dust;
Dust are the hands, and dust the feet,
That would have been so swift to meet
The coming of that wayward boy.
At night the front of the old chateau
Is a blaze of light above and below;
There's a sound of wheels and hoofs in the street,
A cracking of whips, and scamper of feet,
Bells are ringing, and horns are blown,
And the Baron hath come again to his own.
The Curate is waiting in the hall,
Most eager and alive of all
To welcome the Baron and Baroness ”

“ We called unto us the inhabitants of every barony severally. . . We had present certain of the clerks or scholars of the country, who know all the septs and families, and all their branches, and the dignity280 of one sept above another, and what families or persons were chief of every sept, and who were next, and who were of a third rank, and so forth, till they descended to the most inferior man in all the baronies; moreover, they took upon them to tell what quantity of land every man ought to have by the custom of their country, which is of the nature of gavelkind. ”

“ Of these six are peers, another is heir presumptive to a dukedom; while an eighth is a baronet; and of the remaining members of the administration, nineteen out of thirty-eight are peers, baronets, or sons of peers. In the army and navy, in the diplomatic service, the peerage equally secures its full share of prizes; and even in the legal profession it is far from being a disadvantage to a young barrister that his name figures in the pages of Burke. ”

“ If a man holds lands of any ‘escheat’ such as the ‘honour’ of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other ‘escheats’ in our hand that are baronies, at his death his heir shall give us only the ‘relief’ and service that he would have made to the baron, had the barony been in the baron’s hand. ”

“ And now, good my liege, forgive me one sentence more. Heaven forefend that I should stand in the way of thy princely favours. A king's countenance is a sun that should shine on all. But bethink thee well, the barons of England are a stubborn and haughty race; chafe not thy most puissant peers by too cold a neglect of their past services, and too lavish a largess to new men. ”

“ I will still let them see that I can live right royally in my noble halls. When last I met the Minister of State, methought he looked strangely at me, and he certainly did, upon some most shallow and slight excuse, put me off when I spoke of my baronetcy, promised as it has been for so long. ”

“ Rav. 'Tis sworn—'tis secret.
Baron (advancing with all respect towards the prince) . My liege, this honour to a poor old simple baron——
Prince. Sir, you've a title that surpasses pedigree. You are the father of the gallant Ravensburg; and since he comes to claim the soldier's brightest, best reward, fair woman's love, I trust to find you have selected one who richly merits such an envied prize.
Baron (introducing Ulrica.) This is the lady, your highness; and she not only boasts great rank, and, as you see great beauty ”

“ Many other baronets have at one time or another assumed supporters without any official warrant or authority in consequence of certain action taken by an earlier committee of the baronetage, but cases of this kind are slowly dropping out of the Peerage books, and this, combined with the less ostentatious taste of the present day in the depicting of armorial bearings upon carriages and elsewhere, is slowly but steadily reducing the use of supporters to those who possess official authority for their display. ”

“ In a rude state of society, when the barons were again becoming too rich and too powerful, and the Crown becoming too poor and too weak, the excellent system of government by Parliament, and even the excellent law courts, were of very little use; the barons used both for their own ends, and they kept armed men to enforce their views.
The quarrelsome earls and barons.In those days armies were only raised for particular campaigns, and, when peace came, were disbanded and the soldiers, who had perhaps been fighting for ten years in France, were not likely to be peaceful when they came home. ”

“ Sometimes also (as in the case of the barony of Rayleigh, 1821) the dignity is bestowed upon a lady with remainder to the heirs-male of her body. The coronation robes of a baron are the same as those of an earl, except that he has only two rows of spots on each shoulder; and, in like manner, his parliamentary robes have but two guards of white fur, with rows of gold lace; but in other respects they are the same as those of other peers. King Charles II. granted to the barons a coronet, having six large pearls set at equal distances on the chaplet. A baron’s cap is the same as a viscount’s. ”

“ A low laugh issued from the cottage as the same voice replied to this appeal with the following words:—
“Oh mighty are Barons in battle array, Full swift are their steeds and full sharp are their swords; But the heart of a maiden must have its own way, And Love is far stronger than Barons and Lords. He climbs the high walls of the castle so strong, In vain your defences your treasure to shield; To words which are whispered by lover’s true tongue, The peeress and peasant will equally yield.” ”

“ Each of the really powerful men of the realm—archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and "other greater barons"—must receive a separate writ, under the royal seal, addressed to him individually and directly, while the “smaller barons” were to be summoned collectively and indirectly through the sheriffs and bailiffs of each district.
II. Composition of the Council. It is clear that the meetings contemplated were purely baronial assemblies since none but Crown tenants were invited to attend; while individual notice under the king’s seal was given only to the more important magnates among them. ”

“ The baron is too sensible a man to allow your doors to be closed against me without a cause, and he will spare me, I am sure, any explanation on the subject. I have the honour to tell you, my dear baroness, that having resolved to watch these very amusing doings, to see, in fact, how the richest heiress in France is married off, I can establish my point of observation almost anywhere, for, in spite of my diminutive stature, I can manage to see from almost any position, high or low. ”

“ An earl and a baron shall not be amerced but by their peers, and according to the manner of their offence.
No clerk shall be amerced but according to his lay-fee, and in like manner as others aforesaid, and not according to the quantity of his church-living.
No ville nor any man shall be distrained to make bridges over rivers, but where they antiently have, and of right, ought to make them.
No sheriffs, constables, coroners, or other our bailiffs, shall hold the pleas of our crown. ”