Baron (Gallic her, Gothic, vair, mediaeval Latin bavo, early Spanish varon, a man), in the middle ages, the possessor of an estate, who might have feudal tenants under him. In France the nobles in general were at first called barons, but subsequently the immediate vassals of the king received the appellation of hauts barons, or high barons. In Germany the early barons were the highest nobility, who afterward assumed the titles of counts and princes. In more modern times, in both France and Germany, a baron (in the latter country now generally called Freiherr), is a nobleman next in rank to a count. In England the original barons of the realm were those who held lands by tenure of suit and service to the king. They were bound to attend the king in war, to supply money on particular occasions, to furnish a military contingent proportioned to the extent of their fiefs, and to attend the king's courts. Various circumstances having increased the numbers of the barons holding direct from the sovereign, a practice became established about the time of Edward I. of summoning individuals by writ to the great councils.

The barony by tenure and by writ being heritable, the inheritance of the titles became complicated by the devolution of the estates to female descendants, who, though incapable of holding titles, were nevertheless capable of transmitting them. From this a practice arose of creating barons by patent. Limiting the succession to heirs male. All noblemen were originally the king's barons, and inter pares the question of precedence was one not always easy of settlement. The creation of dignities superior to those of barons - dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts - to which some of the greater barons were raised, settled the question in part, and the antiquity of the particular title determined the precedence among those of equal dignity. Some other persons in England, as for instance the citizens of York and London, were styled barons, whose titles were drawn perhaps from the relation of suit and service in which they stood to the crown. The judges of the court of exchequer, a court instituted immediately after the conquest, are still styled barons.