132, 136, 138, 156,
174, 200, 207, 223, 254, 257, 269. [o] Ibid. p. 369. It is
remarkable, that this family of d'Arcy seems to be the only male
descendants of any of the Conqueror's barons now remaining among the
Peers. Lord Holdernesse is the heir of that family. [p] Spellm.
Gloss. in verb. DOMESDAY. [q] Dugd. Bar. vol. i. p. 79. Ibid.
Origines Juridicales, p. 13.]

[MN The feudal Parliament.]
The supreme legislative power of England was lodged in the king and
great council, or what was afterwards called the Parliament. It is
not doubted but the archbishops, bishops, and most considerable
abbots, were constituent members of this council. They sat by a
double title: by prescription, as having always possessed that
privilege, through the whole Saxon period, from the first
establishment of Christianity; and by their right of baronage, as
holding of the king IN CAPITE, by military service. These two titles
of the prelates were never accurately distinguished. When the
usurpations of the church had risen to such a height as to make the
bishops affect a separate dominion, and regard their seat in
Parliament as a degradation of their episcopal dignity; the king
insisted, that they were barons, and, on that account, obliged, by the
general principles of the feudal law, to attend on him in his great
councils [r]. Yet there still remained some practices, which
supposed their title to be derived merely from ancient possession.
When a bishop was elected, he sat in Parliament before the king had
made him restitution of his temporalities; and during the vacancy of a
see, the guardian of the spiritualities was summoned to attend along
with the bishops.
[FN [r] Spellm. Gloss. In verb. BARO.]

The barons were another constituent part of the great council of the
nation. These held immediately of the crown by a military tenure:
they were the most honourable members of the state, and had a RIGHT to
be consulted in all public deliberations: they were the immediate
vassals of the crown, and owed as a SERVICE their attendance in the
court of their supreme lord. A resolution taken without their consent
was likely to be but ill executed; and no determination of any cause
or controversy among them had any validity, where the vote and advice
of the body did not concur. The dignity of earl or count was official
and territorial, as well as hereditary; and as all the earls were also
barons, they were considered as military vassals