| English feudalism |
|---|
 |
| Manorialism |
| Feudal land tenure in England |
| Feudal duties |
| Feudalism |
A feudal baron is avassal holding a heritablefief called abarony, comprising a specific portion of land, granted by anoverlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of Europeanfeudalism, feudal baronies have largely been superseded bybaronies held as a rank of nobility, without any attachment to a fief.
Feudalism was abolished in England and Ireland during the 17th century and English/Irish feudal titles, such as feudal baronies currently exist as estates in land, but there is no recognition.
In contrast, in Scotland, the feudal dignity of baron remained in existence until 2004, until the law change that ended feudalism, with specific provisions in place to legally safeguard the dignity of baronage titles, converting them from feudal titles to personal titles, no longer attached to the land.
Historically, the feudal barons of England were the king'stenants-in-chief, that is to say men who held land byfeudal tenure directly from the king as their soleoverlord and were granted by him a legal jurisdiction (court baron) over their territory, the barony, comprising severalmanors. Such men, if not already noblemen,[a] were ennobled by obtaining such tenure, and had thenceforth an obligation, upon summons by writ, to attend the king's peripatetic court, the earliest form ofParliament and theHouse of Lords. They thus formed thebaronage, which later formed a large part of thepeerage of England.
English feudal baronies (and all lesser forms of feudal tenure) were abolished by theTenures Abolition Act 1660, but the titles/dignities remain. However, long before then the royal summons to attend parliament had been withheld from all but the most powerful feudal barons and had been extended to persons with lesser feudal tenures who had personal qualities fitting them to be royal councillors and thus peers. These latter werebarons by writ.
The English feudal barony, or "barony by tenure", now has no legal existence except as an incorporeal hereditament title or dignity. It was the highest form offeudal land tenure, namelyper baroniam (Latin for "by barony") under which the land-holder owed the now little understood service of "being one of the king's barons". It must be distinguished from the lesser barony, also feudal, which existed within acounty palatine, such as the barony of Halton within thePalatinate of Chester.[b] Such barons were merely tenants-in-chief of a prince, whose own overlord was the king.
The duties and privileges owed by feudal barons cannot now be defined exactly, but the main duty certainly was the provision of soldiers to the royal feudal army on demand by the king. A further duty, which involved considerable expense and travel, clearly also a privilege, was the attendance at the king's feudal court, the precursor ofParliament. The principal benefits clearly were
Theestate-in-land held by barony, if containing a significant castle as itscaput and if especially large, that is to say consisting of more than about 20knight's fees (each loosely equivalent to amanor), was termed an "honour". Constituent manors of a barony were mostlysubinfeudated by the baron to his own knights or followers, with a few retained tenantless as hisdemesne. Most English feudal baronies were converted to baronies of writ or peerage under the Tenures Abolition Act 1660. The baronies not converted became baronies of free socage, a dignity title.
There exist today a very few cases of English families which, had it not been for the 1660 Act, would still be feudal barons of ancient creation. One such is the Berkeley family. Although itsEarldom of Berkeley became extinct in 1942[2] and it recently lost its older peerage titleBaron Berkeley to a female line, in 2014 the family still possesses and resides (that is to say retainstenure) as county gentry atBerkeley Castle, thecaput of thefeudal barony of Berkeley granted by King Henry II (1154–1189) to its direct ancestor in the male lineRobert FitzHarding (d.1171), whose son took the surnamede Berkeley.[3]
Under theAncien Régime until theabolition of the feudal system in 1789, aFrench baron was anynoble in possession of fief called a barony. As such, possession of the title and the land were in theory inextricably linked.[4] Nevertheless, nobles without any fief of their own might assume the title of baron for themselves.
Under theimperial nobility ofNapoleon and the recreatedpeerage of theBourbon Restoration, French baronies returned. However, these new baronies were simply titles of nobility and not fiefdoms.
In contrast to the English equivalent, the dignity of baron is a non-peerage rank of feudal origin in theBaronage of Scotland and is protected by the "Abolition of Feudal Tenure, etc (Scotland) Act 2000" recognised by the crown as a title of nobility with status of minor baron. A Scottish barony is the only UK title of nobility able to be legally alienated from the bloodline of its previous possessor. Hence the Scottish equivalent of an English peerage baron is aLord of Parliament. The heraldry of Scottish baronies is governed by the court of the Lord Lyon.
