It is strange that this unique exception should have occurred in this barony, which had come through a woman, and had been held by a woman. Yvo de Vesci came over with William the Conqueror, and married Alda Tyson, daughter and heir of the Lord of Alnwick. Their daughter Beatrix was sole heir, and married Eustace of Knaresborough, their son taking his mother’s name of De Vesci. Footnote 4: _See_ also “Statutes,” vol. ii., p. 321. Noble ladies shall be tried as peers of the realm are tried, when they are indicted of treason or felony, 20 Henry VI. The opinions of Peeresses as representing property, were always considered in the councils of the King. In the early Norman days they sat among “The Magnates Regni” in right of their fees and communities. “In the Constitutions of Clarendon, Henry II., we find that ‘Universe Persona Regni, qui de Rege tenent in Capite’ were to attend the King’s Court and Council.” (Report of the Lord’s Committee on the Dignity of a Peer of the Realm.) The Abbesses, especially those of Shaftesbury, Barking, Wilton and St. Mary of Winchester, holding directly of the King, were summoned to Anglo-Norman Parliaments, as they had been summoned to Anglo-Saxon Witenagemots. Selden mentions their Summons of 5 Edward I. as being extant in his time; their Summons, twenty-nine years later, to the Parliament of 34 Edward I. is still extant, written in the same manner and terms as those of the other clergy. (Palgrave’s “Parliamentary Writs”; 34 Edward I.) Other Peeresses were summoned according to their inheritance, which, we have seen, followed different lines from what it does to-day, or =by proxy=. By an exemption, intended as a privilege in these days of rough travelling and dangers, a peeress was permitted “to chuse and name her lawful proxy to appear for her _ad colloquimn et tractatium coram rege_ on her behalf.” Alicia de Bigod sent her two proxies to Parliament, 35 Edward I. (_See_ Rot. Parl., 189.) Selden and Gurden mention “_nine_ peeresses so summoned to the Parliament of 35 Edward III.” There were in reality ten. But there was not a _Parliament proper_ that year, no writs having been issued for the Commons. It was rather a council of Peers and Peeresses, especially of those holding lands in Ireland, who were summoned to consult with the King what should be done in that country, and what aid they would grant the King. “Anno 35 Edward III., null summoniciones but summons to council 11 Comitissæ summonitæ at mittend. sede dagnos ad. colloq.” (Harl. MS., 6204).