Early ex-
tinction of
the greater
families.
Hereditary
politics.
Factitious
sources of
strength
548 COnstiMional History. [chap.
from earlier times, almost all the elder historic families had, as
we have seen already, become extinct in the male line, before
the Percies and Nevilles came into the van of the baronage.
The representation of the Clares and Bohuns as well as that of
the Lacies, the Ferrers, the Bigods, and many others, had fallen
into the royal family. The Mowbrays of Norfolk and the
Staffords of Buckingham derived their importance rather from
their marriage with heiresses of royal blood than from the elder
Mowbrays and Staffords ; and this was one of the causes that
gave peculiar horrors to the dynastic quarrel. But even this
short sketch leads into inquiries that are too remote from
constitutional history.
Besides territorial competition and family rivalries, heredi-
tary politics contributed to the weakening of the baronage as a
collective estate. The house of Lancaster with its hereditary
principles had its hereditary following. Bohun and Bigod were
consistent, for generations, in opposition to the assumptions of
the crown; and, when John of Gaunt failed to support ade-
quately the character of the house he represented, Henry IV
learned from the Bohuns and Arundels the lessons that led him
to the throne. To develop however this side of the subject
would be to recapitulate the history of the fifteenth century.
469. If we pass thus summarily over the points in which
faction and personal rivalry weakened the baronage internally,
and turn to those in which class feeling gave them a false
strength and set them apart from the classes next below them,
we shall find additional reasons for doubting their substantial
influence and for believing that their great period of usefulness
was coming to an end. But more than one of the points to be
noted are common to the nobility and the higher gentry or
knightly body ; and causes which tended to divide the one from
the other, tended, in a similar though less effective way, to
sever the interests and sympathies of the gentry from those of
the inferior commons. Chief amongst these causes were the
customs of livery and maintenance, the keeping of great house-
holds and flocks of dependents, the fortification of castles and
manor-houses, the great value set on heraldic distinctions, and
XXI.]
^Liυery.
549
the like. These matters are not all of the same importance,
and have not all the same history. The old feudal spirit which Survival of
1 feudal
prompted a man to treat his tenants and villeins as part of his instincts,
stock, and which aspired to lead in war, and to judge and
tax, his vassals without reference to their bond of allegiance to
the crown, had been crushed before the reign of Edward III ;
but the passions to which it appealed were not extinguished,
and the pursuits of chivalry continued to supply some of the
incentives to vanity and ambition which the feudal customs had
furnished of old. The baron could not reign as king in his Great
castle, but he could make his castle as strong and splendid as the lords,
he chose ; he could not demand the military services of his
vassals for private war, but he could, if he chose to pay for it,
support a vast household of men armed and liveried as servants,
a retinue of pomp and splendour, but ready for any opportunity
of disturbance ; he could bring them to the assizes to impress
the judges, or to parliament to overawe the king ; or he could
lay his hands, through them, on disputed lands and farms, and
frighten away those who had a better claim. He could con-
stitute himself the champion of all who would accept his
championship, maintain their causes in the courts, enable them
to resist a hostile judgment, and delay a hazardous issue. On
the seemingly trifling pomp and pretence of chivalry, the mis-
chievous fabric of extinct feudalism was threatening gradually
to reconstruct itself.
470. Liverywas originally the allowance (Iiberatio) in pro-origin of
visions and clothing which was made for the servants and of Hveiy.
officers of the great households, whether of baron, prelate,
monastery or college ɪ. From the rolls of accounts and house-
hold books of such families it is possible to form a very exact
notion of the economy of the medieval lords. The seveι al de-
partments were organised under regular officers of the buttery,
1 The customs of Iivery and allowances are still maintained in some of
the colleges of the Universities, and in many respects these institutions
furnish most important illustrations of what in the middle ages was the
domestic economy of every large household. At Oriel, for instance, every
fellow has his daily allowance whilst in residence, and, every other year, a
payment for livery, if he has resided the fixed number of days.