Editing Lord of the manor (section)

==Background==
{{Main| Manorialism}}

The manor formed the basic unit of land ownership within the baronial system. Initially in England the feudal "baronial" system considered all those who held land directly from the king by [[knight-service]], from earls downwards, as "barons". Others forms of land tenure under the feudal system included [[serjeanty]] (a form of tenure in return for a specified duty other than standard knight-service) and [[socage]] (payment of a fee). Under King Henry II, the {{lang|la|[[Dialogus de Scaccario]]}} already distinguished between greater barons (who held their baronies ''per baroniam'' by knight-service), and lesser barons (who owned the manor without knight-service). As they held their title due to ownership of manors, and not ''per baroniam'' knights service, Lords of the Manor were in the group of lesser barons. The entitlement or "title" to attend the [[curia regis|King's Council]] in [[English Parliament|parliament]] began to be granted exclusively by decree in the form of a [[writ]] of Summons from 1265 entrenching the status of the Greater Barons and effectively founding the [[House of Lords]].

Magna Carta (which had been first issued in 1215) had declared that "No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers", and thus this body of greater Barons with a right to attend parliament were deemed to be "peers" of one another, and it became the norm to refer to these magnates collectively as the "peerage" during the reign of [[Edward II of England|Edward II]]. Meanwhile the holders of smaller [[fief]]doms ''per baroniam'' ceased to be summoned to parliament, and instead lesser barons of each county would receive a single summons as a group through the sheriff, and representatives from their number would be elected to attend on behalf of the group (this would later evolve into the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]). This meant the official political importance of ownership of manors declined, eventually resulting in [[baron|baronial status]] becoming a "personal" title rather than one linked to ownership of territory. The lesser Baronial titles, including Lordships of the Manor, therefore were not incorporated into the peerage. It is understood that all [[English feudal barony|English Feudal Baronies]] that were not Lordships of the Manor and had not been upgraded into a peerage, were abolished by the [[Tenures Abolition Act 1660]], passed after the Restoration, which took away knight-service and other legal rights. This left Lordships of the Manor as the sole vestige of the English feudal system. Like their English counterparts, by 1600 manorial titles in the formerly Norman territories in France and Italy did not ennoble their holders in the same way as did, for example, a barony in these territories.

Lordships of the Manor often have certain feudal era rights associated with them. The exact rights that each manor holds will be different: the right to hold a market, a right over certain waterways or mineral deposits are all within scope.<ref>https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/52466/pdf/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>