Emma, England's first queen

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John Parsons

Emma, England's first queen

Legg inn av John Parsons » 04 okt 2004 14:57:06

The emergence of the doctrine of "abeyance" & its ramifiications for the
English peerage are well discussed in Antony Wagner's *English Genealogy*
(either edition).

Of course those who came to be regarded as Barons purely as a result of the
doctrine that receipt of an individual writ of summons, followed by an
attested sitting in parliament, created a barony descendable to heirs
general would (as Wagner says) have been stunned to learn that they had ever
become barons. Neither they nor their contemporaries, & particularly not
the kings who had such writs of summons issued, ever imagined the
possibility. This doctrine did not crystallize until (roughly) the last
quarter of the 14th century.

The heyday of peerage lawyers' expertise in getting such baronies "called
out of abeyance" came in the 1830s & 1840s. Such claims before the House of
Lords never stopped, however, & to bring order to the situation, the
Committee on Privileges of the House of Lords recommended in 1911 (I think
that's the right year) that the Sovereign should not call out of abeyance
peerages that had been in abeyance above 50 years.

Now that the House of Lords no longer exists upon an hereditary basis, it is
difficult to guess the fate of such baronies as fall into abeyance
henceforth. There may still be a Committee on Privileges for the House, but
as hereditary peers no longer sit in the House, the Committee has no call to
rule on the inheritance of such peerages. I suppose that as time passes
many will disappear as they fall into abeyance & are not called out. Some
few might re-appear as abeyances can always terminate naturally if, say, one
of two sisters and coheirs dies w/o issue so that the other sister becomes
the only surviving heir. (Of course this is all academic anyway as the
peerages no longer have any legal standing & are of purely social
significance.)

This doctrine affects English baronies by writ only b/c Scots baronies &
earldoms descend to the eldest daughter, whereas English baronies by writ
were [retroactively construed as somehow being] divided among all daughters
(sisters, female cousins, aunts) or their representative heirs. Thus CP is
found describing some ladies as "coheir (in her issue) to a moiety of the
barony of...." & so on.

The lawyers had to make a living too.

John P.


From: ADRIANCHANNING@aol.com
To: GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Emma, England's first queen
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004 19:30:16 EDT

John Parsons,

Thanks for your further comments and examples on this subject.

I suppose the trick is to apply contemporary laws and customs, rather than
impose today's rules, all the same I detect that The Complete Peerage is
guilty
of this error, all those _de jure_ peers. Not having it written down,
understanding the British/English constitution is a bit like pinning down a
blob of
mercury, you think you have it sussed, but then it has changed shape.

Adrian

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