BARON

The lowest but most ancient title of British nobility. The dignity appears to have been originally territorial. The higher feudatories of England, after the Norman conquest, po e ed baronies on which a certain number of knights' fees were dependent, and were bound to attend the king with a certain retinue of knights. But in proce of time, many of the barons having lost by alienation great part of their lands, the distinction hetviecn greater SiViA le er barons began to arise; and the former alone constituted part of the great council of the sovereign, in their own right, until at some early period (supposed to have been about the reign of Henry III.) the practice of summoning individuals to parliament by the king's writ prevailed over the former psage. But this subject is involved in great uncertainty. It has, however, been very generally supposed that the dignity of baron, together with the right to sit in parliament, was at an early period annexed in many instances to the po e ion of certain lands or castles, which have thus been believed to confer baronies by tenure. But Sir Harris Nicolas, in his Introduction to the Peerage, gives strong reasons to show, in the first place, that it is by no means clear that persons seised of lands per bar on i a in were entitled to a summons to parliament in the reign of Edward the First; and, in the next place, that there is no positive proof of such a tenure having been legitimately established at any subsequent period. Baronies by writ were created by the king's writ of summons to parliament, when addre ed to individuals by name. The first thus created were in 49 H. 3., of which two (Despenser and Roos) exist at the present day. Whether, however, the dignity thus created was originally hereditary, admits of a doubt; no words to that effect are found in the ancient writs. But, in point of fact, the next heir was summoned by writ, after the decease of his ancestor, in a great majority of instances; and it has been long settled, that a summons to parliament by the king's writ, addre ed to an individual, creates a barony descendible to heirs general. The earliest creation of a barony by letters patent took place in the 11th year of Richard II. (that of Beauchamp ot Kidder minster); and therefore when a dignity of earlier creation than that year is claimed, it is presumed to have originated in a summons by writ, and consequently to be descendible to heirs general. On the death of a baron by writ without i ue male, but with more daughters than one, the barony falls into abeyance until only one daughter or the sole heir of one daughter survives. The word Baron (baro, or varo, to which Some give a Latin and others a German derivation) appears to have simply signified "man," and in some cases freeman or citizen, in the laws of the Franks and other early nations. In France, the title of baron originally belonged only to those who were immediate va als of the crown: it afterwards became applied in common usage to those who had the right of executing justice on their fiefs. The title of baron ranked, as in England, after those of duke, marquis, count, and viscount; except in Dauphine and Britanny, where the baron had precedence of the three latter. In Germany the title of Baron (Freyherr) is extremely common; but a great distinction existed, under the Empire, between the barons who were created by sovereign lords, and the barons of the Empire, the former being those immediate lords who had no voice in the Diet. BARONET, [s. 147]