No. 449.— Seal of Sir Walter Scott,
of Branxholm and Kirkurd, A.D. 1529. (Laing).
From the initial-letter of my first Chapter I suspended the Shield borne by that Sir Walter Scott, of Abbotsford, whose name will ever be a household word with every lover of what is chivalrous and knightly. Here I place the Seal, No. 449, of an earlier Sir Walter Scott, of Branxholm and Kirkurd—a Knight of another branch of the same distinguished House, who differenced the Shield of Scott so as to bear—Or, on a bend azure a mullet and two crescents gold.
[12.] The specimens of the existing Coinage of Europe, displayed at the Universal Exposition, at Paris, showed that if the art of the English Mint is now at a low ebb, the prevailing standard of numismatic art is not a single degree higher, the coins of France alone being in many respects an honourable exception to the general rule.
[13.] I have lately seen a design for the embroidery of a dress for a young lady of the Clan Campbell; its characteristic features are the Scottish Thistle and the Myrtle, the latter the Badge of the Campbells. I may express my approval of the motive of this design: others, as I have reason to believe, have approved the treatment of it.
[CHAPTER XXIII]
PEERAGE DIGNITIES
The Dignity of Earl— Of Baron— The Parliament of 1295— Landed Qualifications— Creation of the Title Duke of Cornwall— The Title of Marquis— The Premier Baron of England— The Peerage of Scotland— Scottish remainders— Daughter Inherits in her own right— Determination of an Abeyance— The Right to Create Peers of Ireland— Rights and Privileges of a Peeress— The Daughters of Peers— Anomalies of the English Scale of Precedence.
Although the name of the dignity of Earl is derived from a Saxon word, the dignity itself, like all others, is more Norman than Saxon in its character. At the period of the Conquest, and whilst the Norman dynasty was on the throne, there were a number of people who bore this title. At that time and for long afterwards, certainly well into the Plantagenet period, an Earl within his earldom was little short of a petty sovereign. Issues of justice and many other rights of regality were in his hands, and he occupied a position very much akin to a viceroy for the King, seeing that what he did he did in his own name and as Earl, or “comes,” of the County. The High Sheriff was the “vice-comes.” Some of the earldoms had more extensive rights of regality than others, some were actual palatinates, and all earldoms originally were honours in fee heritable by the heir-general. Earldoms had a territorial nature, and the Earl took his “third penny” in the issues of the Courts in his earldom.
The only other dignity at that period was that of Baron, and just as the Earls of to-day have little in common save dignity and title with the Earls of the past, so the Barons originally were very unlike the latest creations of modern Prime Ministers in the name of the King. At the Norman Conquest, and for long afterwards, the Barons, an indeterminate number, were those who held their land in barony.
It is a matter of much uncertainty at what date Parliament came into being. The word goes back to a much earlier period, and is used concerning a variety of meetings which are now generally regarded as meetings of different Councils and not of Parliament, but historians are agreed that whether or not any earlier meetings can be properly described as Parliaments, the Parliament of 1295 was properly and fully constituted in all its elements. To this Parliament all those who were personally summoned by the King in their own names and were not nominated or elected by other people are Peers, and of these Peers those who are not described as Earls are Barons. It should, however, be noted that Bishops and Abbots were summoned by right of the offices they held, and there are certain other officials who were summoned also because of their offices and could be distinguished from the Barons and Earls. There is no shadow of doubt that the reason for the summoning of the Barons was the fact that they were great subjects and important because of their ownership of land. It was landowners who had to provide the military services for the country, and Parliament was chiefly concerned, not in law-making, but in authorising and consulting as to military expeditions, or in providing the subsidies necessary for these expeditions, and the other services of the Crown. In addition to this Peers exercised some of the judicial functions of the Crown. But law-making was done by the King and his Council until a later period. The landed qualifications which justified the summoning of a man to Parliament as a Baron usually descended to his heir and similarly justified the summoning of that heir; and in that way, but without any intention to that end, the right of summons and the right of peerage became hereditary. Originally it had been arbitrary and at the discretion of the Crown. It was not until the reign of Edward IV. that the hereditary peerage character of a barony was fully recognised, and with that recognition came the divorce of the territorial idea from the right of peerage. Like ancient earldoms, ancient baronies were honours in fee heritable by the heirs general. Save that William the Conqueror was Sovereign Lord of the Duchy of Normandy and as such Duke, the dignity of duke did not exist in England until 1337, when Edward the Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall with remainder to his heirs the eldest sons of the Kings of England. That was the creation of the title now enjoyed by the Prince of Wales, but this Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster are really Duchies as distinguished from the Dukedoms enjoyed by other people having the designation of Duke.
The title of Marquis dates from 1386, when Richard II. created Robert de Vere Marquis of Dublin; and the title of Viscount from 1440, when the Viscounty of Beaumont was created. The first Barony by Letters Patent was created in 1387, but the oldest surviving barony by patent now in existence dates from 1448, when Sir John Stourton was created Baron and Lord Stourton of Stourton, co. Wilts. The present Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton, who has inherited the barony of Stourton, also claims, as Lord Mowbray, to be the premier baron of England although the barony of Mowbray is placed on the roll of precedence after the baronies of Le Despenser and De Ros. Although earldoms were granted by charters from the earliest period, because, attached to the earldom, were also material rights which needed to be conveyed, patents did not come into use for baronies until it was desired to limit the succession of the peerage to the heirs male of the body of the grantee, which is a limitation and a less heirship than is comprised in the enjoyment of an honour in fee simple. Privilege of peerage with all it entails has been a slow growth of accretion; and save for place and precedence and the right of any peer or peeress to be tried in the House of Lords, and the now limited and threatened right of peers to legislate, little of privilege of peerage remains.