The only other dignity at that period was that of Baron, and just as the Earls of to-day have little in common save dignity and title with the Earls of the past, so the Barons originally were very unlike the latest creations of modern Prime Ministers in the name of the King. At the Norman Conquest, and for long afterwards, the Barons, an indeterminate number, were those who held their land in barony. It is a matter of much uncertainty at what date Parliament came into being. The word goes back to a much earlier period, and is used concerning a variety of meetings which are now generally regarded as meetings of different Councils and not of Parliament, but historians are agreed that whether or not any earlier meetings can be properly described as Parliaments, the Parliament of 1295 was properly and fully constituted in all its elements. To this Parliament all those who were personally summoned by the King in their own names and were not nominated or elected by other people are Peers, and of these Peers those who are not described as Earls are Barons. It should, however, be noted that Bishops and Abbots were summoned by right of the offices they held, and there are certain other officials who were summoned also because of their offices and could be distinguished from the Barons and Earls. There is no shadow of doubt that the reason for the summoning of the Barons was the fact that they were great subjects and important because of their ownership of land. It was landowners who had to provide the military services for the country, and Parliament was chiefly concerned, not in law-making, but in authorising and consulting as to military expeditions, or in providing the subsidies necessary for these expeditions, and the other services of the Crown. In addition to this Peers exercised some of the judicial functions of the Crown. But law-making was done by the King and his Council until a later period. The landed qualifications which justified the summoning of a man to Parliament as a Baron usually descended to his heir and similarly justified the summoning of that heir; and in that way, but without any intention to that end, the right of summons and the right of peerage became hereditary. Originally it had been arbitrary and at the discretion of the Crown. It was not until the reign of Edward IV. that the hereditary peerage character of a barony was fully recognised, and with that recognition came the divorce of the territorial idea from the right of peerage. Like ancient earldoms, ancient baronies were honours in fee heritable by the heirs general. Save that William the Conqueror was Sovereign Lord of the Duchy of Normandy and as such Duke, the dignity of duke did not exist in England until 1337, when Edward the Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall with remainder to his heirs the eldest sons of the Kings of England. That was the creation of the title now enjoyed by the Prince of Wales, but this Duchy of Cornwall and