The English peerage has been a great fact, and almost a mighty institution.  It had for precedent the Saxon wittenagemote.  The Danish thane and the Norman vavassour commingled in the baron.  Baron is the same as vir, which is translated into Spanish by varon, and which signifies, par excellence, “Man.”  As early as 1075, the barons made themselves felt by the king—­and by what a king!  By William the Conqueror.  In 1086 they laid the foundation of feudality, and its basis was the “Doomsday Book.”  Under John Lackland came conflict.  The French peerage took the high hand with Great Britain, and demanded that the king of England should appear at their bar.  Great was the indignation of the English barons.  At the coronation of Philip Augustus, the King of England, as Duke of Normandy, carried the first square banner, and the Duke of Guyenne the second.  Against this king, a vassal of the foreigner, the War of the Barons burst forth.  The barons imposed on the weak-minded King John Magna Charta, from which sprang the House of Lords.  The pope took part with the king, and excommunicated the lords.  The date was 1215, and the pope was Innocent III., who wrote the “Veni, Sancte Spiritus,” and who sent to John Lackland the four cardinal virtues in the shape of four gold rings.  The Lords persisted.  The duel continued through many generations.  Pembroke struggled. 1248 was the year of “the provisions of Oxford.”  Twenty-four barons limited the king’s powers, discussed him, and called a knight from each county to take part in the widened breach.  Here was the dawn of the Commons.  Later on, the Lords added two citizens from each city, and two burgesses from each borough.  It arose from this, that up to the time of Elizabeth the peers were judges of the validity of elections to the House of Commons.  From their jurisdiction sprang the proverb that the members returned ought to be without the three P’s—­sine Prece, sine Pretio, sine Poculo.  This did not obviate rotten boroughs.  In 1293, the Court of Peers in France had still the King of England under their jurisdiction; and Philippe le Bel cited Edward I. to appear before him.  Edward I. was the king who ordered his son to boil him down after death, and to carry his bones to the wars.  Under the follies of their kings the Lords felt the necessity of fortifying Parliament.  They divided it into two chambers, the upper and the lower.  The Lords arrogantly kept the supremacy.  “If it happens that any member of the Commons should be so bold as to speak to the prejudice of the House of Lords, he is called to the bar of the House to be reprimanded, and, occasionally, to be sent to the Tower.”  There is the same distinction in voting.  In the House of Lords they vote one by one, beginning with the junior, called the puisne baron.  Each peer answers “Content,” or “Non-content.”  In the Commons they vote together, by “Aye,” or “No,” in a crowd.  The Commons accuse, the peers judge.  The peers, in their disdain of