BAR 



t^e crown, however fmall his hoWinp^, was obliged to alTid 

 the kiiijj with hi3 ndvi-e, and 'entitled hki-wik to give or 

 rcfufe his alVent to any new law or fiihiidy, that is, to at- 

 tend in parliament ; this attendance was too heavy and bur- 

 thenfonie upon fuch as. had only one or two k:.ight's fees, 

 and could not be complied with without their ruin. Hence 

 arcfe the omiflioii of ifTuing writs to fuih, and which, being 

 for tlieii eafe, they acq-iicfced in, attendance in parliament 

 being confidered at that time as a burthen. Thus they loft 

 that ri;Tiit thcv were entitled to by the nature of their teiuue, 

 until the method was found out of admitting them by reprc- 

 fentation. Hence arofe the diftinftion between tenants by 

 barony or tenure, and tenants by knigiit's I'crvice in the 

 capite of the king. The former were fucli military tenants 

 of the king, as had eftates fo confiderable as qualified them 

 without inconvenience to attend in parliament, and who 

 were therefore entitled to be fummoned : the quantum of 

 this ettate was regularly thirteen knight's fees and one 

 third, as that of a count or earl was twenty ; that is, as a 

 knight's fee was then reckoned at 20I. per annum, the ba- 

 ron's revenue was 400 marks, or 260I. 13s. 4d. 



Such was the nature of all the baronies of England, for 

 about two hundred years after the conqueft : and they are 

 called baronies by tenure, becaufe the dignity and privileges 

 were annexed to the lands they held j and if thcfe were alien- 

 ated with the confent of the king (for without that they 

 could not), the barony went over to the alienee. Of thefe 

 Matthew Paris tells us there were 250 in the time of 

 Henry HI. ; and whilft they flood purely on this footing, 

 it was not in the king's power to increafe the number of the 

 baronies : though of barons perhaps he might ; for as Wil- 

 liam the Conqueror was obliged to gratify feveral of his 

 great officers, according to the number of men they brought, 

 with two or more baronies, whenever thefe fell into the 

 hands of the crown by cfeheat, either for want of heirs, or 

 by forfeiture, it wa^ in the king's power, and it was his-inte- 

 reft, to divide them into feparate hands. The fame thing 

 likewife happened, when, by an intermarriage with an 

 hcirefs, more baronies than one came into the hands of a 

 nobleman, and efcheated to the crown. 



But the number of thefe feudal baronies could not, 

 ftriftly or properly fpeaking, be increafed by the king ; for 

 they could be created only out of lands, and there were no 

 lands vacant to create new ones out of, for the king's de- 

 mefnes were in thofe days unahenable. However we find, 

 Et the end of Henry the Third's reign, and even in John's, 

 that the number of baronies were attually increafed, and a 

 tlillincilion made between the barones r.iajores and m'l- 

 nores. 



The miijorcs were thofe who flood on the old footing of 

 William, and had lands fnlEeient in Inw, namely, the num- 

 ber of the knight's fees requifite. The m'mores were fuch 

 as held by part of a barony ; and when an old barony de- 

 fcended to, and was divided among fifttrs, in which cafe, 

 when the hufband of the filler whom the king pleafed to 

 name was the baron of parliament, or elfe was newly carved 

 out of the old baronies that had fallen in by efcheat ; 

 as fuppofing the king had granted fix knight's fees of an 

 old barony to one to hold with all the burthens and to the 

 fervice of an entire barony, and the remaining feven and 

 one-third to another on the fame terms. But the attendance 

 of thcfe minor barons alfo at length became too burtlien- 

 fome for their circumftances, and many of them were glad 

 to be excufcd. The king took then the power of paffing 

 by fuch as he thought unable, by not fending them writs of 

 fummons ; and John extended his prerogative even to omit 

 fumraoning fuch of the mnjores as he imagined were inclined 



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to oppofe him : this however at length he was obliged to 

 give up ; for in his m.agna charta it is fa'd, " ad haheiidum 

 commune coniilium regni faciemus fummoaer! archiepiicopos, 

 epifcopos, abbates, comites, & majorts barones regni, figiU 

 latiin per literas nollras." 



Tht barones mnjores were there fully and plainly diflinguifh- 

 ed from the minon-s; and we apprehend it will not be doubted 

 they were fuch as had the full complement of knight's fees 

 that made up an aiicient barony ; and accordingly we tiiid, 

 in 1355, when Henry the Third had neglefted fummonuig 

 fome of thcfe, the others refufing to enter on any bufmels, 

 " quia omnes tunc tcmporis non fueruut, juxta tenorem 

 mainx chartx fux, vocati ; et ideo, fine paribus fu:s tunc 

 abfentibus, nullum voluerunt tunc refpoiifum dare, vel aux- 

 ilium concedere, vel prellare." No king fince ever omitted 

 to fummon all the greater nobility, until Charles the Firft 

 was prevailed upon to forbid the fending a writ to the earl 

 of Brillol, by Buckingham, who was afraid of being accufed 

 bv that nobleman ; but on the application of the houfe of 

 lords, and tlicir adjourning themfclves from day to day and 

 doing no bufmefs, the writ at lall was idiied. 



In the reign of Henry the Third alfo, the king's prero- 

 gative of fummoning or omitting the leffer barons was like- 

 wife afcertained by an ait of parliament fince loft, as wc 

 find by thefe words from hillory : " Ille enim rex (feilicct 

 Henricus Tertius) poll magnas perturbatioues & enormcs 

 vexationes inter ipfum regem, Simoncm de Wonteferti & 

 alios barones, motas & fapitas ilatuit et ordinavit, qiiod 

 omnes ill! comites & barones regni Anglix, quibus ipfe rex 

 dignatus eft brevia dirigere, venerent ad parliamentum. fuum, 

 & non alii, nifi forte dominus rex aha ilia brevia illis dirigere 

 voluiffet :" and from henceforth no nobleman could fit in 

 parliament without a writ. But there was this difference 

 between the greater and the leffer barons, that the former 

 had a right to their writ ex delitojiijlitl^, to the latter it was 

 a matter of favour ; but when fummoned, they being really 

 barons, had the fame rights with the rell, thougli fitting 

 not by any inherent title, but by virtue of the writ. The 

 other leffrr barons, who were generally omitted to be fum- 

 moned, by degrees mixed with the other king's tenants in 

 capite, and were thenceforth reprcfentcd by the knights of 

 the (hires. 



But thefe baronies by tenure being long Cnce worn out 

 among the laity, it is proper to proceed to the two ways 

 now in being of creating peers ; by writ, and by letters pa- 

 tent. It was lord Coke's opinion, and in this he has been 

 followed ever fince, that a writ to any man, bawn or no b?,- 

 ron, to fit in parliament, if once he hath taken his feat in 

 purfuance thereof, gains a barony to him and the heirs of 

 his bcdy ; and though the law, principally on the authority 

 of that great lawyer, is now fo fettled, certainly it is com. 

 paratively but a novel opinion, and very ill to be fupported 

 by reafon. The words of the writ are : " Rex tali falutera 

 quia de advifamento & affenfu confilii noftri, pro quibufdam 

 arduis & urgentibus negotiis ftatum & dcfenfioiiem regni 

 noftri Ansjh^E cop.ccrnentibns, quoddam parliamentum nof- 

 trum apud Weftmonaft. tnli die talis menCs proximo futuro 

 tcneri ordinavimus & ibidem vobifcum, ac cum prelatis mag- 

 natibiis & proceribus di6li regni noftri, colloquium habere & 

 fraclatum ; vohis in fide & ligeantia quibus nobis tenemini 

 firmiter injungendo mandamus, quod confideratis diclorum 

 negotiorum arduitate & periculis iinminentibus, cefTante ex- 

 culatione quacunque, dictis die & loco perfonahter inter fitis 

 nobifcum, ac cum prelatis magnatibus tk proceribus fuper 

 diiflis nogotiis traftaturi, veilrumque confihum inipenfuri, 

 & hoc ficut nos, & honort-n noftrum, ac expeditionem ne- 

 gotiorum prsedidorum diligitis, nullatenus omittatis." 



Tliat 



