BARON. 



2D9 



Baron, increased; alienation of land became frequent; and 

 many families, once opulent and powerful, were at 

 length reduced tw poverty and dependence. In con- 

 sequence of these changes, the small barons were 

 often inclined to withdraw themselves from an ex- 

 pensive attendance in parliament, and to relinquish 

 their privilege of sitting and voting in the national 

 council. Accordingly, their attendance was, at first, 

 occasionally dispensed with : they were no longer in- 

 dividually called to give their advice and assistance. 

 In the great charter it is distinctly intimated, that 

 the archbishops, bishops, earls, and greater barons, 

 (majores barones,) shall be personally summoned to 

 attend the meeting of parliament " at a certain place, 

 with forty days notice;" and that the rest of the 

 king's tenants in capite, shall receive a general cita- 

 tion from the sheriffs of their respective counties. 

 The next step probably was, that the small barons 

 in particular districts, should succeed and relieve one 

 another by turns, as often as the sovereign required 

 their presence, (Blackstone, Comment, vol. i. p. 174. 

 note). And last of all, it was found more convenient 

 that some persons best qualified for the duty of par- 

 liament, and most willing to accept of the commis- 

 sion, should be chosen by general consent, and sup- 

 ported at the common expense, in order to represent 

 their constituents in the chief assembly of the nation. 

 Such is probably the way in which the knights of 

 the shire were introduced into parliament ; though, 

 from the want of records, occasioned by the civil 

 wars, no distinct and certain account of that remark- 

 able event can be given. There is no doubt, how- 

 ever, that it took place at least in the reign of King 

 Henry III. or about the year 1266. See Parlia- 

 ment. 



The separation of the parliament into two houses 

 was not exactly contemporaneous with the represen- 

 tation of counties by the knights of the shire. These 

 being originally of the same rank with the greater 

 barons, continued for some time to sit and vote in 

 what was afterwards called the House of Peers. The 

 same was at first the case with the representatives of 

 boroughs, though of inferior rank. But the number 

 of burgesses that were sent to parliament having, in 

 a short time, been greatly augmented, they found it 

 convenient or necessary to meet in a separate place : 

 And the knights of the shire, being the represen- 

 tatives of counties as they were of boroughs, uni- 

 ted with them, and formed themselves into a dis- 

 tinct assembly called the House of Commons. On 

 this important union, the late Professor Millar, to 

 whom we are indebted for some of the preceding ob- 

 servations, makes the following remarks. " The co. 

 alition of these two orders of deputies," says this 

 eminent writer, " may perhaps be regarded as the 

 great cause of the authority acquired by the English 

 House of Commons. The members of that house were, 

 by this measure, exalted to higher consideration and 

 respect, from the increase of their numbers, as well 

 as from the augmentation of their property. They 

 now represented the mercantile people and the landed 

 gentry, who, exclusive of those who remained in a 

 state of servitude, composed the great body of the 



people, and who possessed a great proportion of the na- 

 tional wealth. Of these two classes, the landed gentry 

 for a long time enjoyed the first rank ; and the de- 

 puties of boroughs were therefore frequently chosen 

 from among the neighbouring gentlemen, (once the 

 lesser barons,) who, by reason of their independence, 

 were more capable than their own burgesses of pro- 

 tecting their constituents. By joining together and 

 confounding these different orders of representatives, 

 the importance of either was in some degree com- 

 municated to both : at the same time, that the peo- 

 ple, under so many leaders, became attentive to their 

 common privileges, and were taught to unite in de- 

 fending them. Had all the constituents appeared in 

 the national council, they would have been a disor- 

 derly multitude, without aim or direction : by choo- 

 sing deputies to manage their parliamentary interest, 

 they became an army reduced into regular subordina- 

 tion, and conducted by intelligent officers." His- 

 torical View of the English Government, vol. ii. p. 224. 



The right or privilege which the barons enjoyed, 

 of sitting and voting in the great national council, 

 may be considered in reference to three distinct pe- 

 riods of English history. The first extends from the 

 Norman conquest to the last years in the reign of 

 King John : The second reaches from that period to 

 the 11th of Richard II.: And the third extends 

 from the 11th of King Richard II. to the present 

 time. During the first of these periods, the barons 

 held their places in the great council of the nation, 

 or rather were obliged to attend the meetings of that 

 council, as possessors of land belonging to the king. 

 They were, therefore, denominated barons by tenure. 

 In the second period the king assumed the privilege 

 of calling individuals into parliament by tvrit, though 

 these individuals were not the feudal subjects of the 

 crown. This was unquestionably a great innovation : 

 yet it was the opinion of Lord Coke, and is now, in- 

 deed, understood to be the law, that any person, sum- 

 moned by writ to attend the meetings of parliament, 

 who shall have once taken his seat in the upper house, 

 becomes in all respects a baron, or procures by that 

 circumstance a barony for himself and hia heirs in full 

 and perpetual right. In the beginning of the last 

 period, the practice of creating peers by letters pa- 

 tent was introduced< For, in the 11th of Richard 

 II., John de Beauchamp, seneschallus or steward of 

 the king's household, was declared, by patent, Lord 

 Beauchamp of Kidderminster, in tail male *. It is 

 true, the example of Richard was not immediately 

 followed : yet the practice begun by that monarch 

 became ultimately general, and peerages are now 

 created at the pleasure of the crown, without regard 

 either to estate or tenure. 



It remains that we conclude this article by stating, 

 that the specific rank or place of a baron, as distin- 

 guished from the other orders of nobility, is known 

 most certainly by his coronet and robes, and likewise 

 by the style in which he is addressed. A baron's 

 coronet is a rim of gold adorned with six pearls or 

 balls : his parliamentary robe is of scarlet, lined with 

 white satin, having two guards of white fur, and two 

 rows of gold spots upon the shoulder. His cap is 



Baron. 



* / remember," says Seidell, " one imtance of a tpiritual baron thus created." Titles of Honour, part ii. p. 771. 



