PEERAGE. Although in England the terms "peerage" (Fr. pairage; Med. Lat. paragium; M.E. pere; O.Fr. per, peer, later pair; Lat. paris, "equal"), "nobility," "House of Lords" are com monly regarded as synonymous, in reality each expresses a dif ferent meaning. A man may be a peer and yet not be a member of the House of Lords, a member of the House of Lords and yet not strictly a peer; though all peers are members of the House of Lords, either in esse or in posse. In the United Kingdom the rights, duties and privileges of peerage are centred in an individual, while to the old monarchical notions of the Continent, nobility conveyed the idea of family, as opposed to personal, privilege.
Etymologically, "peers" are "equals" (pares), and in Anglo-Norman days the word was invariably so understood. The feudal tenants-in-chief of the Crown were all the peers of one another; so, too, a bishop had his ecclesiastical peer in a brother bishop, and the tenants of a manor their peers in their fellow-tenants. That even so late as the reign of John the word was still used in this general sense is clear from Magna Carta, for the term "judicium parium" therein must be under stood to mean that every man had a right to be tried by his equals. This right was asserted by the barons as a body in 1233 on behalf of Richard, Earl Marshal, who had been declared a traitor by the King's command. The English barons undoubtedly were using the word in the sense it held in Magna Carta. The change in England was gradual, and probably gathered force as the gulf between the greater barons and the lesser widened, until in course of time, for judicial purposes, there came to be only two classes, the greater barons and the rest of the people. Ecclesiastics had special privileges for most purposes, being triable only by the Church. The first use of the word "peers," as denoting those members of the baronage who were accustomed to receive regularly a personal writ of summons to parliament, is found in the record of the proceedings against the Despensers in 1321.
(Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 347.) Anglo-Norman Baronage.—Properly to understand the growth and attributes of the peerage it is necessary to trace the changes which occurred in the position of the Anglo-Norman baronage, first through the gradual strengthening of royal supremacy, with the consequent decay of baronial power locally, and subsequently by the consolidation of parliamentary institu tions during the reigns of the first three Edwards. In place of the individual absolute ownership of Saxon days, the Conqueror became practically the sole owner of the soil. The change, though not immediately complete, followed rapidly as the country settled down and the power of the Crown extended to its outlying frontiers. The new owners became direct tenants of the king. All tenants-in-chief were termed generally barons (see BARON).
king's tenants owed as a duty the service of attending the King's Court (curia regis), and out of this custom grew the parliaments of later days. In theory all the king's tenants-in-chief, great and small, had a right to be present as incident to their tenure. The King's Court was held regularly at the three great festivals of the Church and at such other times as deemed advisable. The assembly for several generations neither possessed nor pretended to any legislative powers. Legislative power was a product of later years, and grew out of the custom of the Estates granting supplies only on condition that their grievances were first redressed. The great bulk of the tenants were present for the purpose of assenting to special taxation above and beyond their ordinary feudal dues. When necessary a general summons to attend was sent through the sheriff of every county, who controlled a system of local government which enabled him to reach every tenant. In course of time to a cer tain number of barons and high ecclesiastics it became customary to issue a personal writ of summons, thus distinguishing them from the general mass summoned through the sheriff.