History & Society
baron
title
Category:
History & Society
- Feminine:
- baroness
- Related Topics:
- British nobility
- aristocracy
- Freiherr
baron, baron equivalentstitle of nobility, ranking below a viscount (or below a count in countries without viscounts). It is one of the five ranks of British nobility and peerage, which, in descending order, are duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. 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 ...(100 of 863 words)