BARONIA, or Baronagium, the lordship or fee of a baron, either temporal or spiritual: In which sense barony amounts to the same with what is otherwise called honour.

A barony may be considered as a lordship held by some service in chief of the king, coinciding with what is otherwise called grand sergeantry. Baronies, in their first creation, moved from the king himself, the chief lord of the whole realm, and could be holden immediately of no other lord. For example, the king enfeoffed a man of a great seigneurie in land, to hold to the person enfeoffed and his heirs, of the king and his heirs, by baronial service; to wit, by the service of 20, 40, 60 knights, or of such other number of knights, either more or fewer, as the king by his enfeoffment limited or appointed.—In the ages next after the Conquest, when a great lord was enfeoffed by the king of a large seigneurie, such seigneurie was called a barony, but more commonly an honour; as, the honour of Gloucestershire, the honour of Wallingford, the honour of Lancaster, the honour of Richmond, and the like. There were in England certain honours, which were often called by Norman or other foreign names; that is to say, sometimes by the English and sometimes by the foreign name. This happened when the same person was lord of an honour in Normandy, or some other foreign country, and also of an honour in England. For example, William de Forz, de Force, or de Fortibus, was lord of the honour of Albemarle in Normandy; he was also lord of two honours in England; to wit, the honour of Holderness, and the honour of Skipton in Craven. These honours in England were sometimes called by the Norman name, the honour of Albemarle, or the honour of the Earl of Albemarle. In like manner, the Earl of Britannie was lord of the honour of Britannie in France, and also of the honour of Richmond in England; the honour of Richmond was sometimes called by the foreign name, the honour of Britannie, or the honour of the Earl of Britannie. This serveth to explain the terms "honour of Albemarle in England," honor Albemarliæ, or comitis Albemarliæ in Anglia; honor Britannie, or comitis Britannie in Anglia, "the honour of Britannie," or "the Earl of Britannie in England." Not that Albemarle or Britannie were in England, but that the same person respectively was lord of each of the said honours abroad and of each of the said honours in England. The baronies belonging to bishops are by some called regalia, as being held solely on the king's liberality. These do not consist in one barony alone, but in many; for tot erant baroniae, quot majora praedia.

A barony, according to Bracton, is a right indivisible. Wherefore, if an inheritance be to be divided among coparceners, though some capital messuages may be divided, yet if the capital messuage be the head of a county or barony, it may not be parcelled; and the reason is, lest by this division many of the rights of counties and baronies by degrees come to nothing, to the prejudice of the realm, which is said to be composed of counties and baronies.