49-527: The Honour of Richmond (or Richmondshire) was a feudal barony in what is now mainly North Yorkshire , England. The honour was two tiers below Yorkshire , the middle tier being the North Riding . Before the honour was created, the land was held by Edwin, Earl of Mercia who died in 1071. The honour was granted to Count Alan Rufus (also known as Alain le Roux) by King William the Conqueror (as
98-477: 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 control of a single lord. Usually, though, a more concentrated cluster existed somewhere. Here would lie the caput (head) of the honour, with a castle that gave its name to
147-617: A peerage on such basis, meaning a right to sit in the House of Lords , were not to be revived, nor any right of succession based on them. In the Berkeley Case in 1861, an attempt was made to claim a seat in the House of Lords by right of a barony by tenure, but the House of Lords ruled that whatever might have been the case in the past, baronies by tenure no longer existed, meaning that a barony could not be held "by tenure", and confirmed
196-465: A barony generally paid £100 in baronial relief for his inheritance. The term "relief" implies "elevation", both words being derived from the Latin levo , to raise up, into a position of honour. Where a barony was split into two, for example on the death of a baron leaving two co-heiresses, each daughter's husband would become a baron in respect of his moiety (mediaeval French for "half"), paying half of
245-426: A few hundred acres possibly up to a thousand acres each, into each of which he would sub-enfeoff one knight, by the tenure of knight-service . This tenure gave the knight use of the fief and all its revenues, on condition that he should provide to the baron, now his overlord, 40 days of military service, complete with retinue of esquires, horses and armour. The fief so allotted is known as a knight's fee . Alternatively
294-625: A gift of thanks for his services in the Conquest) sometime from after the Domesday Book of 1068 to just after the earls death in 1071, the date is uncertain. The honour comprised 60 knight's fees and was one of the most important fiefdoms in Norman England . According to the 14th-century Genealogia of the lords of Richmond, Alan Rufus built a stronghold in the district. The buildings were later known as Richmond Castle which
343-462: Is "on the demesne". This does not mean they were resident within the baron's demesne, but that they had to be hired with the revenue arising from it. Conversely, a barony was "over-enfeoffed" where more knights had been enfeoffed than was required by the servitium debitum , and this indicated that the barony had been obtained on overly-favourable terms. The Cartae Baronum ("Charters of the Barons")
392-466: Is alluded to in the Domesday survey as forming a ‘castlery’. The manor of Gilling was the caput of the barony until Count Alan moved it to Richmond Castle . Richmond castle was in ruins by 1540 but was restored centuries later and is now a tourist attraction. The Honour of Richmond, being 60 km (37 mi) from east to west and 45 km (28 mi) from north to south, comprised most of
441-736: Is to say under a "free" (hereditable) contract requiring payment of monetary rents. Thus baronies could no longer be held by military service. Parliamentary titles of honour had been limited since the 15th century by the Modus Tenenda Parliamenta act , and could thenceforth only be created by writ of summons or letters patent . Tenure by knight-service was abolished and discharged and the lands covered by such tenures, including once-feudal baronies, were henceforth held by socage (i.e. in exchange for monetary rents). The English Fitzwalter Case in 1670 ruled that barony by tenure had been discontinued for many years and any claims to
490-612: The Caput , Latin for "head", generally assumed to have been the seat or chief residence of the first baron. So, for instance, the barony of Turstin FitzRolf became known as the barony of North Cadbury , Somerset. The exact date of creation of most feudal baronies cannot be determined, as their founding charters have been lost. Many of them are first recorded in the Domesday Book survey of 1086. The feudal obligation imposed by
539-529: The Barony of Kendal , the Barony of Arundel and the Barony of Abergavenny. The first two terms now describe areas of the historic county of Westmorland , in the same way that the word "county" itself has lost its feudal meaning of a land area under the control of a count or earl . Ivor J. Sanders searched the archives, for example Exchequer documents such as fine rolls and pipe rolls , for entries recording
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#1732797532368588-752: The Kingdom of England , the Magnum Concilium ( Latin for "Great Council" ) was an assembly historically convened at certain times of the year when the English nobles and church leaders outside the Curia regis were summoned to discuss the affairs of the country with the king . In the 13th century, the Great Council was superseded by the Parliament of England , which had developed out of
637-648: The Short Parliament and suffered defeats in the Bishops' Wars against Scotland . The Concilium offered Charles a guaranteed loan of £200,000 sterling to pay the army and attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate with the Scots, but it declined to resume its ancient governing role, and urged Charles instead to summon a new Parliament , which then became a protagonist in the English Civil War . Following
686-535: The Cinque Ports were also deemed feudal barons by virtue of their military service at sea, and were thus entitled to attend Parliament. Baronial relief was payable by an heir so that he might lawfully take possession of his inheritance. It was a form of one-off taxation, or more accurately a variety of "feudal incident", levyable by the King on his tenants-in-chief for a variety of reasons. A prospective heir to
735-571: The Council. The Great Council was last summoned by Charles I in 1640. The Magnum Concilium ( Latin for "Great Council") originated in the 10th century, when several small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms formed a unified Kingdom of England . In Anglo-Saxon England , the king held deliberative assemblies of nobles and prelates , called witans . These assemblies comprised between twenty-five and hundreds of participants, including bishops , abbots , ealdormen , and thegns . Witans met regularly during
784-545: The English, Lambert of Etocquigny, greeting. Know that I hold from you by your favour 16 carucates of land and 2 bovates [ about 2,000 acres ] by the service of 10 knights. In these 16 carucates of land I have 5 knights enfeoffed by the old enfeoffment: And from my demesne I provide the balance of the service I owe you, to wit, that of 5 knights. And from that demesne I have given Robert de Portemort 3 ⁄ 4 of 1 knight's fee. Therefore I pray you that you will send me your judgement concerning Richard de Haia who holds back
833-818: The River Swale as its northern boundary; its western boundary was the Pennine watershed and its southern boundary was the watershed with the River Wharfe and the River Nidd . The eastern border followed small streams and minor landmarks from the previous watershed to the Swale. The wapentake meeting place was situated on the Hang Beck in Finghall parish. The third part of the territory, Hallikeld, consisted of
882-557: The Tenures Abolition Act 1660. Three Redesdale Committee Reports in the early 19th century reached the same conclusion. There has been at least one legal opinion which asserts the continuing legal existence of the feudal barony in England and Wales, namely that from 1996 of A W & C Barsby, Barristers of Grays's Inn. Survivals of feudal baronies, in their geographical form, are the Barony of Westmorland or Appleby,
931-438: The baron could keep the entire barony, or a part of it, in demesne , that is to say "in-hand" or under his own management, using the revenues it produced to buy the services of mercenary knights known as "stipendiary knights". Where a baron had sub-enfeoffed fewer knights than required by the servitium debitum , the barony was said to be "under-enfeoffed", and the balance of knights owing had to be produced super dominium , that
980-438: The barons forced John to abide by a charter of liberties similar to charters issued by earlier kings (see Charter of Liberties ). Known as Magna Carta (Latin for "Great Charter"), the document was based on three assumptions important to the later development of Parliament: While the clause stipulating no taxation "without the common counsel" was deleted from later reissues, it was nevertheless followed. Magna Carta transformed
1029-412: The barony was as follows: English feudal barony 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
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#17327975323681078-583: The county and not the kingdom, such as the barony of Halton within the Palatinate of Chester . William the Conqueror established his favoured followers as barons by enfeoffing them as tenants-in-chief with great fiefdoms to be held per baroniam , a largely standard feudal contract of tenure, common to all his barons. Such barons were not necessarily always from the greater Norman nobles, but were selected often on account of their personal abilities and usefulness. Thus, for instance, Turstin FitzRolf ,
1127-469: 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
1176-527: The early kings almost continually travelled around the kingdom, taking their court (i.e. administration) with them. A king only called a parliament, or council, when the need arose for either advice or funding. This lack of a parliamentary schedule meant that the barons needed to be informed when and where to attend. As baronies became fragmented over time due to failure of male heirs and descent via co-heiresses (see below), many of those who held per baroniam became holders of relatively small fiefdoms. Eventually,
1225-475: The feudal obligation to advise the king into a right to consent. The liberties guaranteed in the charter were granted to "all the free men of our realm", but it was the barons in council who would represent them. During the reign of John's son, Henry III ( r. 1216–1272 ), meetings of the great council began to be called parliament from the French parlement first used in the late 11th century with
1274-460: The full baronial relief. A tenant-in-chief could be the lord of fractions of several different baronies, if he or his ancestors had married co-heiresses. The tenure of even the smallest fraction of a barony conferred baronial status on the lord of these lands. This natural fragmentation of the baronies led to great difficulties within the royal administration as the king relied on an ever-increasing number of men responsible for supplying soldiers for
1323-453: The grant of a barony was termed in Latin the servitium debitum or "service owed" and was set as a quota of knights to be provided for the king's service. It bore no constant relation to the amount of land comprised by the barony, but was fixed by a bargain between the king and the baron. It was at the discretion of the baron as to how these knights were found. The commonest method was for him to split his barony into several fiefs of between
1372-422: The honour and served as its administrative headquarters. The term honour is particularly useful for the eleventh and twelfth centuries, before the development of an extensive peerage hierarchy. This type of barony is different from the type of feudal barony which existed within a county palatine . A county palatine was an independent franchise so its baronies were considered the highest rank of feudal tenure in
1421-446: The king refused to summon such minor nobles to Parliament by personal writ, sending instead a general writ of summons to the sheriff of each shire, who was to summon only representatives of these so-called lesser barons. The greater barons, who retained sufficient power to insist upon it, continued to receive personal summonses. The king came to realise, from the complacency of the lesser barons with this new procedure, that in practice it
1470-635: The king to produce Anglo-Saxon law codes and acted as a court for important cases (such as those involving the king or important magnates). After the Norman Conquest of 1066, William the Conqueror ( r. 1066–1087 ) continued the tradition of summoning assemblies of magnates to consider national affairs, conduct state trials , and make laws; although legislation now took the form of writs rather than law codes. These assemblies were called magnum concilium . While kings had access to familiar counsel , this private advice could not replace
1519-700: The land between the River Tees and the River Ure and ranged in its landscape from the bleak mountainous areas of the Pennines to the fertile lowlands of the Vale of York . The district, throughout most of its history, consisted of three main land divisions; the wapentakes of Hang (later divided east and west), Gilling (later divided east and west) and Hallikeld . The Gilling wapentake or Gillingshire (later two wapentakes) consisted mainly of land which lay between
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1568-521: The meaning of parley or conversation. The Parliament of England would continue to develop in the reign of Henry's son Edward I ( r. 1272–1307 ). According to The Oxford History of England , Henry VII summoned the Magnum Concilium half a dozen times in the last years of the fifteenth century, but thereafter it fell into disuse. In the autumn of 1640 Charles I summoned the first Magnum Concilium in generations, having dissolved
1617-464: The name of the baron, for example the "Barony of Miles of Gloucester". The following lists include all of Sanders' certain and probable baronies. For a full comprehensive list of feudal baronies in the 13th century along with earldoms, bishoprics, and archbishoprics see List of nobles and magnates of England in the 13th century . Source: Sanders (1960) Source, unless otherwise stated: Sanders (1960), pp. 103–151 Magnum Concilium In
1666-561: The need for consensus building, and overreliance on familiar counsel could lead to political instability. Great councils were valued because they "carried fewer political risks, allowed responsibility to be more broadly shared, and drew a larger body of prelates and magnates into the making of decisions". The council's members were the king's tenants-in-chief . The greater tenants, such as archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls , and barons were summoned by individual writ, but sometimes lesser tenants were also summoned by sheriffs . Politics in
1715-484: The parishes lying between the River Ure and the River Swale until their confluence at Ellenthorpe . The feudal barons of Richmond were usually referred to as Lords of Richmond. The Honour of Richmond was sometimes held separately from the titles Earl of Richmond , and later Duke of Richmond . Grants were sometimes partial, and sometimes included or excluded Richmond Castle as noted in the list below. The descent of
1764-467: The payment of baronial relief and published his results in English Baronies, a Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327 (Oxford, 1960). He identified a number of certain baronies where evidence was found of payment of baronial relief, and a further group which he termed "probable baronies" where the evidence was less clear. Where he could not identify a caput , Sanders named the barony after
1813-587: The period following the Conquest (1066–1154) was dominated by about 200 wealthy laymen , in addition to the king and leading clergy. High-ranking churchmen (such as bishops and abbots) were important magnates in their own right. According to Domesday Book , the English church owned between 25% and 33% of all land in 1066. Traditionally, the great council was not involved in levying taxes. Royal finances derived from land revenues, feudal aids and incidents , and
1862-582: The profits of royal justice. This changed near the end of Henry II's reign (1154–1189) due to the need to finance the Third Crusade , ransom Richard I , and pay for the series of Anglo-French wars fought between the Plantagenet and Capetian dynasties . In 1188, Henry II gained the council's consent to levy the Saladin tithe . The precedent of gaining the magnates' consent in council for taxation
1911-483: The relatively humble and obscure knight who had stepped in at the last minute to accept the position of Duke William's standard-bearer at the Battle of Hastings , was granted a barony which comprised well over twenty manors. Lands forming a barony were often located in several different counties, not necessarily adjoining. The name of such a barony is generally deemed to be the name of the chief manor within it, known as
1960-697: The rivers Tees (to the north with the County of Durham on the other side), Wiske (to the east with Allertonshire on the other side). The north bordered land granted to the Prince Bishops of Durham . The watershed between the River Swale and the River Ure was the southern border with the Hang Wapentake while the western border was the Pennines . The division of Hang, or Hangshire, had
2009-407: The royal army, and the records of the identities of these fractional barons became more complex and unreliable. The early English jurist Henry de Bracton (died 1268) was one of the first writers to examine the concept of the feudal barony. The power of the feudal barons to control their landholding was considerably weakened in 1290 by the statute of Quia Emptores . This prohibited land from being
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2058-423: The service of his fee, because I cannot obtain that service except by your order. This is the total service in the aforesaid 16 carucates of land. Farewell. The privilege which balanced the burden of the servitium debitum was the baron's right to attend the king's council. Originally all barons who held per baroniam received individual writs of summons to attend Parliament. This was a practical measure because
2107-526: The start of the decline of feudalism, eventually evolving into summons by public proclamation in the form of letters patent . The higher prelates such as archbishops and bishops were deemed to hold per baroniam , and were thus members of the baronage entitled to attend Parliament, indeed they formed the greatest grouping of all. Marcher lords in Wales often held their lordships by right of conquest and appear to have been deemed feudal barons. The Barons of
2156-734: The subject of a feudal grant, and allowed its transfer without the feudal lord's permission. Feudal baronies became perhaps obsolete (but not extinct) on the abolition of feudal tenure during the Civil War , as confirmed by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660 passed under the Restoration which took away knights service and other legal rights. Under the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, many baronies by tenure were converted into baronies by writ . The rest ceased to exist as feudal baronies by tenure, becoming baronies in free socage , that
2205-591: The succession was disputed. They were theatrical displays of kingship in that they coincided with crown-wearings. They were also forums for receiving petitions and building consensus among the magnates . King's dispensed patronage , such as granting bookland , and these were recorded in charters witnessed and consented to by those in attendance. Appointments to offices, such as to bishoprics or ealdormanries, were also made during witans. In addition, important political decisions were made in consultation with witans, such as going to war and making treaties. Witans also helped
2254-421: The three feasts of Christmas , Easter and Whitsun and at other times. Previously, kings interacted with their nobility through royal itineration , but the new kingdom's size made that impractical. Having nobles come to the king for witans was an important alternative to maintain control of the realm. Witans served several functions. They appear to have had a role in electing kings , especially in times when
2303-479: Was a survey commissioned by the Treasury in 1166. It required each baron to declare how many knights he had enfeoffed and how many were super dominium , with the names of all. It appears that the survey was designed to identify baronies from which a greater servitium debitum could in future be obtained by the king. An example is given from the return of Lambert of Etocquigny: To his reverend lord, Henry, king of
2352-519: Was followed thereafter. In the process, the council assumed a more representative role since they were in effect consenting on behalf of the kingdom's taxpayers. At the same time, these financial pressures created new political tensions between the baronage and the Crown. King John ( r. 1199–1216 ) alienated the barons by showing partiality when dispensing justice, heavy financial demands and abusing his right to feudal incidents and aids. In 1215,
2401-528: Was not tenure per baroniam which determined attendance at Parliament, but receipt of a writ of summons originated by himself. The next logical development was that the king started issuing writs to persons who did not hold per baroniam and who were not therefore feudal barons, but "barons by writ". The reason for summoning by writ was based on personal characteristics, for example the man summoned might be one of exceptional judgement or have valuable military skills. The arbitrary summons by personal writ signalled
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