Editing Peerages in the United Kingdom (section)

===Early Parliament===

The modern peerage system is a vestige of the custom of English kings in the 12th and 13th centuries to grant a right to [[Baron]]s to attend [[English Parliament|parliament]]; in the late 14th century, this right (or "title") began to be granted by decree, and titles also became inherited with the rest of a [[Manorialism|manorial]] estate under the system of [[primogeniture]].

The requirement to attend Parliament was both a liability and a privilege for those who held land as a [[tenant-in-chief]] from the King ''per baroniam'': that is to say, under the feudal contract wherein a King's Baron was responsible for raising knights and troops for the royal military service.

When kings summoned their barons to Royal Councils, the greater barons were summoned individually by the sovereign, lesser barons through [[High sheriff|sheriffs]], a local judicial office from the Anglo-Saxon era meaning '[[shire]]-[[Reeve (England)|reeve]]' formerly selected from the [[Thegn|thane]] class.

In England in 1254, the lesser barons ceased to be summoned, and this right, entitlement or "title" to attend parliament began to be granted by decree in the form of a [[Writ of summons]] from 1265. This body of greater barons evolved into the House of Lords. [[Magna Carta]], first issued in 1215, declared that "No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers", and thus this body of greater Barons were deemed to be "peers" of one another, and it became the norm to refer to these magnates as a "peerage" during the reign of [[Edward II of England|Edward II]].

Meanwhile the holders of smaller [[fief]]doms ''per baroniam'' ceased to be summoned to parliament; thus the official political importance of ownership of manors declined, resulting in [[baron|baronial status]] becoming a personal title rather than one linked to ownership of territory.

Eventually 'writs of summons' ceased to be issued, and [[Letters patent]] were used to create new lordships: new lords were summoned to parliament by Letters patent from 1388. The first baron to be created by patent was [[John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp (fourth creation)|Lord Beauchamp of Holt]] in the reign of [[Richard II of England|Richard II]].

[[Feudal barony|Feudal baronies]] had always been hereditable by [[primogeniture]], but on condition of payment of a fine, termed "[[Feudal relief|relief]]", derived from the Latin verb ''levo'', to lift up, meaning a "re-elevation" to a former position of honour. By the beginning of the 14th century, the hereditary nature of the peerage was well developed. Since the Crown was itself a hereditary dignity, it seemed natural for seats in the upper House of Parliament to be so as well. Baronies and other titles of nobility became unconditionally hereditable on the abolition of feudal tenure by the [[Tenures Abolition Act 1660]].