The Barons are probably the modern representatives of the ancient Saxon Thanes. It is an old Norman name for the Thane, and it is found often enough in ancient documents. Guillim says that citizens of London were called "Barons Londonni," and in Domesday there is mention of Barons of Warwick. There were Barons of the Exchequer, and there are still the Barons of the Cinque Ports. But none of these were hereditary titles.
Edward III., however, created William de la Pole an hereditary Baron, and since that time the dignity has been generally hereditary. Baronies were at first held by Tenure, that is by reason of the existence of adequate territorial possessions, and Guillim says that this essential was forgone by Henry III., who created Barons by Writ. In later times, when the rank became hereditary, Baronies by Writ have been heritable through the female line, and because of this, Baronial titles have in many instances been held by several allied families, with different family names.
The coronet of a Baron was originally a plain circlet, but Charles II. ordained that in future there should be six balls upon it, and the Barons at his coronation wore such additional ornamentation. In Ireland, however, this form of Barons' coronets had already been fixed by James I.
At the coronation of Edward VII., the official description of a Baron's coronet is "of silver gilt and on the circle six silver balls at equal distances." Pictorially four silver balls are shown.
The coronet of a King-of-Arms is of silver gilt, and on the circlet is inscribed the words "MISERERE MEI DEUS SECUNDUM MAGNAM MISERICORDIAM TUAM," taken from the 51st Psalm. From the circlet rise alternately long and short oak leaves.
The Kings-of-Arms, Heralds, and Pursuivants were incorporated as a College by Richard III. in 1483, and Derby House in the city, now the College of Arms, was given to them as their headquarters in 1555. Kings-of-Arms wore coronets from the beginning; a portrait of William Bruges, the first Garter King-of-Arms, in 1420, in an illuminated manuscript, shows him wearing a coronet on which are four trefoils, or leaves, upon short pyramidal stems. On the grant of arms of the Tallow Chandlers' Company, John Smert, Garter King-of-Arms in 1456, is shown wearing a coronet on which are three leaves and two pearls or balls. Sir William Dugdale, Garter King-of-Arms during the latter half of the seventeenth century, wore a coronet with twelve oak leaves of equal height on the circlet, on which there was no inscription. The coronet as now used was probably first decided upon early in the eighteenth century.
Heralds and Kings-of-Arms are entitled to surround their arms with the ancient collar of SS. The same honour is allowed to the Serjeants-at-Arms and several of the Judges.