baron summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see baron.

baron, 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.

Montesquieu Summary

Montesquieu was a French political philosopher whose principal work, The Spirit of Laws, was a major contribution to political theory. Montesquieu’s father, Jacques de Secondat, belonged to an old military family of modest wealth that had been ennobled in the 16th century for services to the crown,