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Feudal Barony
A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely been superseded by baronies held as a rank of nobility, without any attachment to a fief.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. England Historically, the feudal barons of England were the king's tenants-in-chief, that is to say men who held land by feudal tenure directly from the king ...
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Vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. The rights and obligations of a vassal are called vassalage, while the rights and obligations of a suzerain are called suzerainty. The obligations of a vassal often included military support by knights in exchange for certain privileges, usually including land held as a tenant or fief. The term is also applied to similar arrangements in other feudal societies. In contrast, fealty (''fidelitas'') was sworn, unconditional loyalty to a monarch. European vassalage In fully developed vassalage, the lord and the vassal would take part in a commendation ceremony composed of two parts, the Homage (feudal), homage and the fealty, including the use of Christian sacraments to show its sacred importance. According to Eginhard's brief description, ...
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Barony By Writ
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of April 2025, there are 800 hereditary peers: 30 dukes (including six royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary titles). As a result of the Peerage Act 1963, all peers except those in the peerage of Ireland were entitled to sit in the House of Lords. Since the House of Lords Act 1999 came into force only 92 hereditary peers, elected from all hereditary peers, are permitted to do so, unless they are also life peers. Peers are called to the House of Lords with a writ of summons. Not all hereditary titles are titles of the peerage. For instance, baronets and baronetesses may pass on their titles, but they are not peers. Conversely, the holder of a non-hereditary title may belong to the peerage, as with life peers. Peerages may be created by means of letters patent, but the granting of new hereditary peerages has largely dwindled; only seven hereditar ...
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Berkeley Castle
Berkeley Castle ( ; historically sometimes spelled as ''Berkley Castle'' or ''Barkley Castle'') is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. The castle's origins date back to the 11th century, being designated by English Heritage as a Grade I-listed building. The castle, traditionally believed to have been the scene of the murder of King Edward II of England, Edward II in 1327, has remained in the possession of the Berkeley family since they reconstructed it in the 12th century, except for a period of royal ownership under the Tudor dynasty, Tudors. The Baron Berkeley#Barons Berkeley, by writ, Second Creation (1421), Berkeley barony having separated from the List of earldoms#Earldoms in the Peerage of England, 1066–1707, earldom in 1882, the Randal Thomas Mowbray Berkeley, 8th Earl of Berkeley, 8th and last Earl of Berkeley (1865–1942) bequeathed the ancestral seat to his Kinship, 13th cousin, Robert Berkeley (cricketer), Captain Robert Be ...
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Baron Berkeley
The title Baron Berkeley originated as a feudal title and was subsequently created twice in the Peerage of England by writ. It was first granted by writ to Thomas de Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley (1245–1321), 6th feudal Baron Berkeley, in 1295, but the title of that creation became extinct at the death of his great-great-grandson, the fifth Baron by writ, when no male heirs to the barony by writ remained, although the feudal barony continued. The next creation by writ was in 1421, for the last baron's nephew and heir James Berkeley. His son and successor William was created Viscount Berkeley in 1481, Earl of Nottingham in 1483, and Marquess of Berkeley in 1488. He had no surviving male issue, so the Marquessate and his other non-inherited titles became extinct on his death in 1491, whilst the barony passed ''de jure'' to his younger brother Maurice. However, William had disinherited Maurice because he considered him to have brought shame on the noble House of Berkeley by marr ...
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Demesne
A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land subinfeudation, sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. In contrast, the entire territory controlled by a monarch both directly and indirectly via their tenant lords would typically be referred to as their realm. The concept originated in the Kingdom of France and found its way to foreign lands influenced by it or its fiefdoms. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, royal demesne is the land held by the Monarch, Crown, and ancient demesne is the legal term for the land held by the king at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. Etymology The word derives from Old French , ultimately from Latin , "lord, master of a household" – ''demesne'' is a variant of ''domaine''. The word ''barton'', which is historically synonymous to ''demesne'' and is an element found in many place-names, can refer t ...
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Subinfeudation
In English law, subinfeudation is the practice by which tenants, holding land under the king or other superior lord, carved out new and distinct tenures in their turn by sub-letting or alienating a part of their lands. The tenants were termed mesne lords, with regard to those holding from them, the immediate tenant being ''tenant in capite''. The lowest tenant of all was the freeholder, or, as he was sometimes termed, ''tenant paravail''. The Crown, who in theory owned all lands, was '' lord paramount''. The great lords looked with dissatisfaction on the increase of such subtenures. Accordingly, in 1290 a statute was passed, , which allowed the tenant to alienate whenever he pleased, but the person to whom he granted the land was to hold it for the same immediate lord, and by the same services as the alienor held it before. Scotland In Scots law, the feudal system was abolished by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000. The length of a lease was limited ...
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Honour (feudal Land Tenure)
In the kingdom of England, a feudal barony or barony by tenure was the highest degree of feudal land tenure, namely ''per baroniam'' (Latin for "by barony"), under which the land-holder owed the service of being one of the king's barons. The duties owed by and the privileges granted to feudal barons are not exactly defined, but they involved the duty of providing soldiers to the royal feudal army on demand by the king, and the privilege of attendance at the king's feudal court, the ''Magnum Concilium'', the precursor of parliament. If the estate-in-land held by barony contained a significant castle as its '' caput baroniae'' and if it was especially large – consisting of more than about 20 knight's fees (each loosely equivalent to a manor) – then it was termed an honour. The typical honour had properties scattered over several shires, intermingled with the properties of others. This was a specific policy of the Norman kings, to avoid establishing any one area under the con ...
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Knight's Fee
In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. It would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish himself and his retinue with horses and armour to fight for his overlord in battle. It was effectively the size of a fief (or "fee" which is synonymous with "fief") sufficient to support one knight in the ongoing performance of his feudal duties (knight-service). A knight's fee cannot be stated as a standard number of acres, as the required acreage to produce a given crop or revenue would vary depending on many factors, including its location, the richness of its soil and the local climate, as well as the presence of other exploitable resources such as a fishing weir, quarries of rock, or mines of minerals. If a knight's fee is deemed coterminous with a manor, an average size would be between 1,000 and 5,000 acres, of which much in early times was s ...
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Caput Baroniae
In the customs of the kingdom of England, the ''caput baroniae'' (Latin, 'head of the barony') was the ancient, or chief seat or castle of a nobleman, which was not to be divided among the daughters upon his death, in case there be no son to inherit. Instead, it was to descend entirely to the eldest daughter, ''caeteris filiabus aliunde satisfactis'' ("other daughters having been satisfied elsewhere"). The central settlement in an Anglo-Saxon multiple estate was called a '' caput'',Michael Aston, ''Interpreting the Landscape'' (Routledge, reprinted 1998, page 34) (also short for ''caput baroniae''). The word is also used for the centre of administration of a hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar .... References English family law Feudalism in England So ...
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Estate (law)
In common law, an estate is a living or deceased person's net worth. It is the sum of a person's assets – the legal rights, interests, and entitlements to property of any kind – less all liabilities at a given time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person. (See inheritance.) Depending on the particular context, the term is also used in reference to an estate in land or of a particular kind of property (such as real estate or personal estate). The term is also used to refer to the sum of a person's assets only. The equivalent in civil law legal systems is patrimony. Bankruptcy Under United States bankruptcy law, a person's estate consists of all assets or property of any kind available for distribution to creditors. However, some assets are recognized as exempt to allow a person significant resources to restart their financial life. In the United States, asset exemptions depend on various factors, inclu ...
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Parliament Of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spiritual, bishops and Peerages in the United Kingdom, peers that advised the History of the English monarchy, English monarch. Great councils were first called Parliaments during the reign of Henry III of England, Henry III (). By this time, the king required Parliament's consent to levy taxation. Originally a Unicameralism, unicameral body, a Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament emerged when its membership was divided into the House of Lords and House of Commons of England, House of Commons, which included Knight of the shire, knights of the shire and Burgess (title), burgesses. During Henry IV of England, Henry IV's reign, the role of Parliament expanded beyond the determination of taxation policy to include the "redress of grievances", whi ...
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