arose in the reign of Henry III., if not earlier.1 In consequence of the barons' wars which took place during that reign, a great number of the ancient nobility was destroyed; and therefore, when a Parliament was called by Henry III. at Winchester, and afterwards at Westminster, he, to increase the order of Peers, issued his writs to several persons who did not hold their lands per baroniam. The writ was a summons to attend the House of Peers by the style and title of that barony which the King was pleased to confer. It was issued to persons not possessed of baronies, by virtue of which they were seated among the peers, and acquired the rank and title of barons." Peerages by patent also arose at a very early period. "From the time of Henry the Third," says Sir Harris Nicholas,3" to the eleventh of Richard the Second, 1387, Barons were created by Writs of Summons, and Earls and Dukes by Patents or Charters. A Writ of Summons, and a Sitting in Parliament in consequence of such writ, are held to create an hereditary peerage to the heirs of the body, male and female, of the person so summoned. Though there are grounds for believing that it was the general practice to summon the heirs of the individuals so created by writs, it is beyond a doubt that, until the reign of Richard the Second, the Crown was accustomed to summon a person to one, two, or more Parliaments, or during his life only. Few baronies by writ have been created for some centuries, though many ancient dignities of that nature have been allowed to one among several co-heirs. This is an exercise of the Prerogative which requires the utmost caution, since an ancient Peerage is thereby revived, which descends to the heirs, male and female, of the body of the individual so restored, whilst a new creation by patent would become extinct when the heirs male fail. In cases, however, where a person is the sole heir of a Barony by Writ, he has a legal right to the title." Mr. Hallam gives an interesting account of the nature and history of early peerages in the following terms :-"The number 1 Cruise, Dig. s. 48. 3 Letter, p. 15, 2nd ed. 2 Bowyer, Const. Law, p. 459. of temporal lords summoned by writ to the Parliaments of the House of Plantagenet was exceedingly various; nor was anything more common in the fourteenth century than to omit those who had previously sat in person, and still more their descendants. They were rather less numerous, for this reason, under the line of Lancaster, when the practice of summoning those who were not hereditary peers did not so much prevail as in the preceding reigns. Fifty-three names, however, appear in the Parliament of 1454, the last held before the commencement of the great contest between York and Lancaster. In this troublous period of above thirty years, if the whole reign of Edward IV. is to be included, the chiefs of many powerful families lost their lives in the field or on the scaffold, and their honours perished with them by attainder. New families, adherents of the victorious party, rose in their place; and sometimes an attainder was reversed by favour; so that the peers of Edward's reign were not much fewer than the number I have mentioned. Henry VII. summoned but twenty-nine to his first Parliament, including some whose attainder had never been judicially reversed; a plain act of violence, like his previous usurpation of the crown. In his subsequent Parliament the peerage was increased by fresh creations, but never much exceeded forty. The greatest number summoned by Henry VIII. was fifty-one, which continued to be nearly the average in the two next reigns, and was very little augmented by Elizabeth. James, in his thoughtless profusion of favour, made so many new creations, that eighty-two peers sat in his first Parliament, and ninety-six in his latest. From a similar facility in granting so cheap a reward of service, and in some measure, perhaps, from the policy of counteracting a spirit of opposition to the Court, which many of the lords had begun to manifest, Charles called no less than one hundred and seventeen peers to the Parliament of 1628, and one hundred and nineteen to that of November, 1640. Many of these honours were sold by both the princes; a disgraceful and dangerous practice, unheard of in earlier times, by which the princely peerage of England might have been gradually levelled with the herd of foreign nobility. This has occasionally, though rarely, been suspected since the Restoration. In the Parliament of 1661 we find one hundred and thirty-nine lords summoned." Sir Harris Nicholas holds that the peerage may be granted for life. Mr. Bowyer says,-" It is not clear that the Crown may not create peers for life;" and adds, "if the question were ever brought before the House of Lords, their Lordships would probably be anxious, on grounds of public policy, not to sanction the doctrine that peers may be created for life."1 It is deserving of remark here, that Mr. Macqueen, in a pamphlet written before the elevation of Baron Parke to the peerage, maintains the right of the Crown to create peers for life. "Life peerages," observes Mr. Macqueen,2 "would not be an innovation. The Lords have just reported their opinion to the Crown, that the original Dukedom of Montrose, created in 1488, was but for the life of the grantee. It is not questioned that life peerages were known in Scotland: it is certain that they existed in England. The lesser barons summoned after Magna Charta were often for life. The reign of Henry III. is no doubt obscure. Then it was that the change took place, solving a mystery in the Rolls of Parliament that puzzled and baffled the committee appointed to inquire into and report on the dignity of the peerage. In the reigns of Edward I., II., and III., of Richard II. and of Henry IV., Baronetages were given to the sons of Peers, to judicial dignitaries, and to military and naval commanders. Bannerettes were temporary members of the Upper House. They might, however, be hereditary, and those came in time to be considered as Barons. But they seem to have been more usually for life, or for a single Parliament, or durante officio. None of these could be members of the Lower House, or serve on Juries of Commoners. Bannerettes were not, originally, military dignities; they were conferred on grave chief justices. Bannerettes were the last in the first order of the State. A Hull merchant, who had lent the King a sum of money for his foreign wars, was made a Bannerette by Edward III." We shall now direct the attention of our readers in detail to 1 Juridical Papers, vol. i. p. 156. the precedents of the early creations of life-peerages, as stated and arranged in the speech of Lord St. Leonards,' which, as corrected by himself, contains the best account of them. The first case is that of Guiscard D'Angoulesme. He and his father were both severely wounded at the battle of Poictiers; he was left on the field for dead, but recovered, and passed into the service of England; he was much employed by Edward the Third, and by the Black Prince; and when Richard the Second was crowned in his boyhood, Guiscard was appointed his tutor, and was created Earl of Huntingdon for his whole life. He was summoned to Parliament; but as a foreigner he could not sit: it does not appear that he did sit. He died at the end of three years, without issue. In the 1st of Richard the Second there is another instance of a grant of an earldom without the authority of Parliament. Thomas, Earl of Wodstoke, was created Earl of Bucks. However, in the 14th of Richard the Second, for the security of the earl, a new grant was made of the same earldom, with the assent of the Prelates, and Peers, and Commons. The next case is that of the favourite Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who was created Marquis of Dublin (being the first creation to that dignity) for his whole life. He was afterwards made Duke of Ireland. It may be observed that the marquis was already an earl, with a descendible estate; so that he and his issue male would continue to sit, just as if the marquisate had never been created. The next instance is that of the creation, by Richard the Second, of John, Duke of Lancaster (the King's uncle), Duke of Aquitaine for his whole life. The last on the list in the reign of Richard the Second is the grant to his cousin, the Countess of Norfolk, of the rank of duchess for her whole life. This lady was already a countess. For the authorities we now pass on to Henry the Fifth. In his second year the King created John of Lancaster, his brother, Earl of Kendal and Duke of Bedford, to hold during his natural life; and at the same time he created his other brother, Humphrey, Earl of Pembroke and Duke of Gloucester for life; and Hansard, vol. cxl. pp. 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309. Richard of York Earl of Cambridge; the latter, it appears without any limitation. The next creation is that by Henry the Fifth, of Thomas, Earl of Dorset (the King's brother); he was created, it is stated, Duke of Exeter "for his natural life." Stow makes no mention of its being confined for life, but it is so expressly stated by Dugdale; from which it has been inferred that he considered it was, in law, confined to the duke's life. Now, in point of fact, the grant was general, and there were no words confining it to the duke's life. Dugdale, in mere error, states it to have been a creation for his natural life. He does not come to that conclusion from the want of words of limitation; he makes no such statement. It will be observed that he was already an earl. The last creation in the reign of Henry the Fifth is that in 1417, of the Earl of Warwick, who was created Earl of Albemarle for life. He was already an earl, and his earldom was descendible to his issue male. The next case bearing upon this point is in the time of Henry the Sixth. In 1411 Sir John Cornewall, who had married the King's aunt, was created Baron Farnhope; and in 1444 (20 Hen. 6) he was created Baron Melbroke. Both these grants were without words of limitation. The last case is that of the Earldom of Thomond, created by Henry the Eighth in 1543. Upon the surrender to the King of the principality of Maurice O'Brien, the Earldom of Thomond was granted to Maurice for life, with remainder to his nephew Conan (whom, in truth, he had deposed) for life; but each of them was at the same time created a baron in the usual way to him and his heirs male; so that each sat in respect of a descendible estate, although a higher title was limited to each in succession for life. We have stated the instances of creations of peers for life so far as the facts seem to be admitted on all sides, in order to enable our readers to form their own opinion on the subject. Many objections, however, have been started with regard to the validity of these precedents. The creations, it is alleged, were made to a foreigner, or were confirmed by Parliament, or the possessors had already old dignities, or there were no apt words |