Editing Baron (section)

===France===
During the {{lang|fr|[[Ancien Régime]]|italic=no}}, French baronies were very much like [[Scottish barony|Scottish ones]]. Feudal landholders who possessed a [[Feudal barony|barony]] were entitled to style themselves as a baron ({{langx|fr|baron}}) if they were [[French nobility |nobles]]; a {{lang|fr| roturier}} ([[commoner]]) could only be a {{lang|fr| seigneur de la baronnie}} (lord of the barony). French baronies could be sold freely until 1789, when the [[National Constituent Assembly (France) | Constituent Assembly]] abolished feudal law. The title of baron was assumed as a {{lang|fr|[[courtesy title|titre de courtoisie]]}} by many nobles, whether members of the [[Nobles of the Robe]] or cadets of [[Nobles of the Sword]] who held no title in their own right.

Emperor {{lang|fr|[[Napoléon]]|italic=no}} ({{reign | 1804 | 1815}}) created a new [[Nobility of the First French Empire| imperial nobility]] in which ''baron'' appeared from 1808 as the second-lowest title. The titles were inherited through a male-only line of descent and could not be purchased.

In 1815, King [[Louis XVIII]] created a new [[peerage of France| peerage system]] and a [[Chamber of Peers (France)| Chamber of Peers]], based on the [[House of Lords| British model]]. Baron-peer was the lowest title, but the heirs to pre-1789 barons could remain barons, as could the elder sons of [[viscount]]-peers and the younger sons of [[count]]-peers. This peerage system was abolished in 1848.