Baron, a term originally derived from late Lat. baro, 'a man,' acquired, like homo, under the feudal system, the meaning of a vassal, 'homage' (hominium) being the ceremony by which the vassal became the man of his lord. By the 13th century in England the highest class of the king's tenants-in-chief, all of whom were holders of several knight's fees, had come in a more restricted sense to be called barons, the term sometimes including earls and spiritual lords, besides those who were barons and nothing more. Barons possessed a civil and criminal jurisdiction, and were liable, or entitled, to take part in the general council of the nation. The provisions of the Great Charter show that in the time of King John a distinction was recognised between two classes of barons; the right of the 'barones maiores' being secured to a personal summons to parliament, along with the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and earls; while the other tenants-in-chief of the crown were summoned generally by the sheriff. This personal summons became the means of defining who were great barons; and in the course of time the right to it came to be regarded as hereditary, a quality thoroughly established in the reign of Edward I. The term baron came more and more to mean the holder of a seat in the House of Lords; the existence of territorial barons, who had no seat in parliament, passed out of mind; and the word baronage came to be regarded as an equivalent for the peerage generally, members of the higher orders of the peerage being all barons. Barons who were such in virtue of their summons were known as barons by writ; and their baronies were inherited by heirs male and female. When parted between two or more co-heiresses, such a barony falls into abeyance, until one, or the sole heir of one of the co-heiresses only survives. It is held that the crown can at any time terminate the abeyance in favour of one of the co-heirs. The creation of barons by patent, first introduced in the reign of Richard II., made the dignity personal, the patent limiting the succession to it. John de Beauchamp of Holt, the first baron by patent, was created Baron of Kidderminster by letters-patent, dated 10th October 1387, to himself and the heirs-male of his body. It was not till the twenty-fourth year of Henry VI. that the practice of creating barons in this way became general; but the creation of barons by writ has now been long discontinued, except in the case of the eldest son of a peer of a higher grade, who is occasionally summoned to parliament in right of his father's barony.
In Scotland, as in England, the term baron at first included all crown vassals—but it came in the course of time to be applied in a more restricted way to such of them as had had their lands erected by the king in liberam baroniam. The whole barons, even in the wider sense of the word, were, theoretically at least, under the obligation to attend the council of the nation. By the less considerable landholders (even such as were in this stricter sense barons) this obligation was felt a grievous burden, and doubtless it was not very rigidly enforced. A statute of James I. in March 1427-28 enacted that the 'small barons' should be excused from attending parliament, provided they sent two or more wise men from each sheriffdom to represent them. Though this act was a failure in its main object, the introduction of parliamentary representation (which was not actually established till 1587), it seems to have afforded a quasi-sanction to the habitual absence from parliament of all but the largest landowners. The hereditary title of lord of parliament, first introduced in the 15th century, was in Scotland by no means correlative with the status of baron, it being but a small proportion of the holders of charters of barony who were invested with that dignity. About the end of the 16th century, lords of parliament began occasionally to be styled 'barones maiores' in contradistinction to other holders of these lands by barony, who were 'barones minores;' and when, with the more intimate intercourse between the two countries, something like the English idea of peerage sprang up in Scotland, the position of the former was accounted analogous to that of English barons; their proper designation, however, continuing to be lords, not barons, as distinctly recognised even after the Union of 1707 had put them in possession of all the privileges of peers of England, except the right to sit in parliament and on the trial of peers.
Down to the Restoration the English barons had no coronet, but wore crimson velvet caps turned up with ermine, and at an earlier date, scarlet caps turned up with white fur. Charles II. assigned to them for coronet a circlet of gold, having six large pearls set on it, of which four are seen in the cut, the cap being of crimson velvet guarded with ermine with a gold tassel. The mantle of state is scarlet, with two doublings of ermine. In 1665, when the coronets Baron's Coronet of the peers of Scotland were assimilated to those of England, a royal warrant extended the use of this coronet to Scottish lords of parliament.
Scottish barons (not lords) had in virtue of their charters of barony very extensive rights of jurisdiction, civil and criminal, including 'pit and gallows,' power over life and limb: the gallows-hill is still an object of interest near some baronial mansions. That jurisdiction might be exercised either by the baron himself or by his bailie. Act 20 Geo. II., chap. 43, reduced the jurisdiction of a baron in civil matters to the right of recovering from vassals and tenants the feu-duties and rents of their lands, and of compelling them to perform the services to which they were bound; he could also entertain civil questions generally when the amount did not exceed 40s. His criminal jurisdiction was at the same time restricted to the power of inflicting a fine of 20s. for assaults. This limited jurisdiction soon fell into desuetude. The same statute further provided that no future charter of barony should confer any higher jurisdiction than the power to recover rents, multures, and will services. Some Scottish peers of higher title sit in the House of Lords as barons of the United Kingdom; thus the Duke of Argyll sits as Baron Sundridge.
The judges in the Court of Exchequer (q.v.) were from a very early period called Barons of Exchequer. The name probably meant no more than men, chief men, of exchequer. The parliamentary representatives of the Cinque Ports (q.v.), who sat in the House of Commons till 1831, were also called barons.
In Germany, the term baron originally meant, as it did elsewhere, a tenant-in-chief of the crown; but its signification, instead of having become restricted, as in England, has become extended. The greater barons, or dynasty-barons, who had seats in the estates of the realm, were all in the earlier part of last century elevated to higher titles. Every descendant of the Knights of the Holy Roman Empire, who ranked among the lower nobility, now takes the style of baron; and a large number of those so designed are barons in virtue of a diploma from some reigning prince, the title being used by all the descendants of the patentee.
In France, very few barons belonging to the old noblesse remain; most of the titles of baron now enjoyed, date from the First Empire or the Restoration. A very few were creations of Louis-Philippe. French barons bear, by way of augmentation, a sinister canton in their arms.