baron

/bar"euhn/, n.

1. a member of the lowest grade of nobility.

2. (in Britain)

a. a feudal vassal holding his lands under a direct grant from the king.

b. a direct descendant of such a vassal or his equal in the nobility.

c. a member of the House of Lords.

3. an important financier or industrialist, esp. one with great power in a particular area: an oil baron.

4. a cut of mutton or lamb comprising the two loins, or saddle, and the hind legs. Cf. baron of beef.

[1200-50; ME < AF, OF < LL baron- (s.of baro) man < Gmc; sense "cut of beef" perh. by analogy with the fanciful analysis of SIRLOIN as "Sir Loin"]

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I

Title of nobility, ranking in modern times immediately below a viscount or a count (in countries without viscounts).

The wife of a baron is a baroness. Originally, in the early Middle Ages, the term designated a tenant of whatever rank who held a tenure of barony direct from the king. Gradually, it came to mean a powerful personage, and therefore a magnate. The rights and title may be conferred for military or other honorable service.

II

(as used in expressions)

Friedrich Leopold Baron von Hardenberg

Baron Adrian of Cambridge

Amherst Jeffery Amherst 1st Baron

Bach Alexander baron von

Baden Powell of Gilwell Robert Stephenson Smyth 1st Baron

Baltimore of Baltimore George Calvert 1st Baron

Berzelius Jöns Jacob Baron

Beveridge of Tuggal William Henry 1st Baron

Blackett of Chelsea Patrick Maynard Stuart Baron

Britten of Aldeburgh Edward Benjamin Britten Baron

Bülow Hans Guido baron von

Butler Richard Austen baron of Saffron Walden

Byron George Gordon Byron 6th Baron

Callaghan of Cardiff Leonard James Callaghan Baron

Carondelet Francisco Luis Hector baron de

Carson of Duncairn Edward Henry Baron

Cauchy Augustin Louis Baron

Cecil William 1st Baron Burghley

Clark of Saltwood Kenneth Mackenzie Clark Baron

Clive of Plassey Robert 1st Baron

Coubertin Pierre baron de

Cuvier Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Baron

De La Warr Thomas West 12th Baron

Baron Delaware

Dorchester of Dorchester Guy Carleton 1st Baron

Baron Dupuytren

Eichendorff Joseph Baron von

Ensor James Sidney Baron

Erskine of Restormel Thomas Erskine 1st Baron

Fairfax of Cameron Thomas Fairfax 3rd Baron

Fisher of Kilverstone John Arbuthnot Fisher 1st Baron

Florey Howard Walter Baron

Fourier Jean Baptiste Joseph Baron

Baron Haussmann

Holberg Ludvig Baron

Horta Victor Baron

Humboldt Karl Wilhelm baron von

Ismay of Wormington Hastings Lionel Ismay Baron

Jenkins of Hillhead Roy Harris Jenkins Baron

Jomini Antoine Henri baron de

Kelvin of Largs William Thomson Baron

Keynes John Maynard Baron Keynes of Tilton

Krafft Ebing Richard Freiherr Baron von

La Hontan Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce baron de

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr baron von Leibniz

Liebig Justus Freiherr baron von

Baron Lister of Lyme Regis

Lister Samuel Cunliffe Baron Masham of Swinton

Baron Lloyd Webber

Baron Lugard of Abinger

Macaulay Thomas Babington Baron Macaulay of Rothley

Baron Moynihan of Leeds

Neurath Konstantin baron von

Nordenskiöld Nils Adolf Erik Frihere baron

Olivier Laurence Kerr Baron Olivier of Brighton

Pirquet Clemens baron von

Pufendorf Samuel baron von

Raglan of Raglan FitzRoy James Henry Somerset 1st Baron

Rank Joseph Arthur Baron Rank of Sutton Scotney

Rayleigh of Terling Place John William Strutt 3rd Baron

Reuter Paul Julius Baron von Reuter

Richthofen Manfred baron von

the Red Baron

Rokitansky Karl baron von

Rutherford of Nelson Ernest Rutherford Baron

Baron Snow of the City of Leicester

Stein Heinrich Friedrich Karl imperial baron vom und zum

Steuben Frederick William Augustus Baron von

Tedder of Glenguin Arthur William Tedder 1st Baron

Thomson of Fleet Roy Herbert Thomson 1st Baron

Turgot Anne Robert Jacques baron de l'Aulne

Wilson James Harold Baron Wilson of Rievaulx

Wolff Christian Freiherr baron von

Wrangel Pyotr Nikolayevich Baron

Acton of Aldenham John Emerich Edward Dahlberg Acton 1st Baron

Beaverbrook of Beaverbrook and of Cherkley Maxwell Aitken lst Baron

Baron Dalling and Bulwer of Dalling

1st Baron Lytton of Knebworth

Baron Home of the Hirsel of Coldstream

Freyberg of Wellington and of Munstead Bernard Cyril Freyberg 1st Baron

Holland of Foxley and of Holland Henry Richard Vassall Fox 3rd Baron

Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr baron von

Baron Lawrence of the Punjab and of Grately

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat baron de La Brède et de

Noel Baker of the City of Derby Philip John Noel Baker Baron

Shaughnessy of Montreal and Ashford Thomas George Shaughnessy 1st Baron

Tennyson Alfred 1st Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater

Ward Barbara Mary Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth

Baroness Blixen Finecke

Droste Hülshoff Annette Baroness von

Orczy Emmuska Magdalena Rosalia Marie Josepha Barbara Baroness

Anne Louise Germaine Necker Baroness de Staë l Holstein

Thatcher Margaret Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven

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▪ title

Introduction

feminine  baroness 

 title of nobility, ranking below a viscount (or below a count in countries without viscounts). In the feudal system of Europe, a baron was a “man” who pledged his loyalty and service to his superior in return for land that he could pass to his heirs. The superior, sovereign in his principality, held his lands “of no one”—i.e., independently—and the baron was his tenant-in-chief. In early feudal times the baron in turn, in a process of subinfeudation, might have had his own subordinate barons. This practice was discontinued in England when King Edward I recognized the political and fiscal dangers it posed.

Great Britain

      In England the Norman kings assembled advisory councils of the more powerful barons. As these councils evolved into Parliaments larger numbers of barons, as well as representatives of the church, burgesses, and knights of the shires, were summoned to attend the meetings.

      The early baron held his lands, or barony, of the king; if the lands passed from his family they carried away the rank and the privileges of that rank: such barons were termed barons by tenure. After the concept of the peerage—those titled individuals who shared the responsibility of government—began to develop, those feudal barons by tenure who had received writs summoning them to the early Parliaments were considered to be ipso facto peers, barons by writ. Landless men who were created peers in anticipation of their contributions to the crown were termed barons by patent. Letters patent (grants made publicly) became the usual way to create new peers or to promote existing ones.

      Initially the distinction between barons by tenure and those who were the equivalent of peers was unclear. The rank was conferred along with the holdings in the feudal system, but through the hierarchy of feudal ranks the barons held baronies, the lords held lordships, and the earls held earldoms in the same relationship of fealty to the sovereign, in baroniam.

      The subsequent slow decline of the law-enforcing powers of the barons so reduced the importance of the baronies that the term baron became at one time in Scotland a synonym for freeholder, while in England the term became a title for those in the lowest rank of the peerage. Life peers, whose rank is not heritable, are styled baron. In Scotland today a baron is still one who holds a feudal rank, and the lowest rank of the Scots peerage, equivalent to the rank of baron in the peerages of England, of Great Britain, of Ireland, and of the United Kingdom, is lord of parliament.

France

      In 12th-century France the term baron, in a restricted sense, was applied properly to all lords possessing an important fief, but toward the end of the 13th century the title had come to mean that its bearer held his principal fief direct from the crown and was therefore more important than a count, since many counts were only mediate vassals. From this period, however, the title tended to sink in importance. In the 14th century the barons were ranked below counts and viscounts, though in power and possessions many barons were superior to many counts. In any case, until the 17th century the title of baron could be borne only by the holder of a territorial barony, and it was Louis XIV who first cheapened the title in France by creating numerous barons by royal letters. The creation of barons was later revived by Napoleon I, continued by Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Philippe, and revived again on a generous scale by Napoleon III. Since 1870 the tolerant attitude of the French republican governments toward titles, which are not officially recognized, has increased the confusion by facilitating the assumption of the title on very slender grounds of right.

Germany

      The German equivalent of baron, Freiherr, or “free lord” of the empire, originally implied a dynastic status, and many Freiherren held countships without taking the title of count (Graf). When the more important of them styled themselves counts, the Freiherren sank into an inferior class of nobility. The practice of conferring the title of Freiherr by imperial letters—begun in the 16th century by Emperor Charles V—was later exercised by all the German sovereigns.

Italy

      In the Middle Ages the Italian barons had extensive powers of jurisdiction within their domains and could inflict the death penalty. There was a right of appeal, but it was of little value generally and in Sicily and Sardinia was nonexistent. In the late Middle Ages the barons' powers became more extensive, especially in the south, and they had the right to mint money and wage private war. The title was recognized until 1945.

Spain

      In early medieval Navarre and Aragon barón described the senior nobility but later, perhaps under the influence of Castilian practice, it was displaced by ricos hombres— “rich men.” In Catalonia a baron was simply a magnate, but in the later Middle Ages he achieved a distinct status even more important than the French barons. Some nobles retained the title until it was abolished by the Cortes of Cadiz in 1812.

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