at a feudal tenure was, in construction
of law, the basis of every lord's attendance in parliament. This form
was not finally changed to the present, in fide et _ligeantia_, till the
46th of Edw. III. Prynne's first Register, p. 206.

[298] Collins's Proceedings on Claims of Baronies, p. 24 and 73.

[299] Prynne speaks of "the alienation of baronies by sale, gift, or
marriage, after which the new purchasers were summoned instead," as if
it frequently happened. First Register, p. 239. And several instances
are mentioned in the Bergavenny case (Collins's Proceedings, p. 113)
where, land-baronies having been entailed by the owners on their heirs
male, the heirs general have been excluded from inheriting the dignity.

[300] Prynne's first Register, p. 237. This must be understood to mean
that no new families were summoned; for the descendants of some who are
not supposed to have held land-baronies may constantly be found in later
lists. [Note IX.]

[301] West's Inquiry. Prynne, who takes rather lower ground than West,
and was not aware of Sir Henry de Bromflete's descent, admits that a
writ of summons to any one, naming him baron, or dominus, as Baroni de
Greystoke, domino de Furnival, did give an inheritable peerage; not so a
writ generally worded, naming the party knight or esquire, unless he
held by barony.

[302] Lord Abergavenny's case, 12 Coke's Reports; and Collins's
Proceedings on Claims of Baronies by Writ, p. 61.

[303] Prynne's first Register, p. 232. Elsynge, who strenuously contends
against the writ of summons conferring an hereditary nobility, is of
opinion that the party summoned was never omitted in subsequent
parliaments, and consequently was a peer for life. p. 43. But more
regard is due to Prynne's later inquiries.

[304] Case of Willoughby, Collins, p. 8; of Dacres, p. 41; of
Abergavenny, p. 119. But see the case of Grey de Ruthin, p. 222 and 230,
where the contrary position is stated by Selden upon better grounds.

[305] It seems to have been admitted by Lord Redesdale, in the case of
the barony of L'Isle, that a writ of summons, with sufficient proof of
having sat by virtue of it in the house of lords, did in fact create an
hereditary peerage from the fifth year of Richard II., though he
resisted this with respect to claimants who could only deduce their
pedigree from an ancestor summoned by one of the three Edwards.
Nicolas's Case of Barony of L'Isle, p. 200. The theory, therefore, of
West, w