Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Titles and Statuses/Baronets

A baronet can be defined as a man holding a British hereditary title of honor reserved for commoners, ranking immediately below the barons and above all orders of knighthood except the Garter.(1) When James I created the baronetage in May 1611 he was passing from one stage of his financial operations to another. The plan of creating the baronets was one of his many financial plans at the time. (2) Lionel Cranfield was very influential in the financial field. This was also a time that England was not doing so well financially and so creating the status of baronet was a way for the king to increase income. This was not welcomed by parliament as they knew that if the king had alternate income he would not call Parliament as often and in fact did not do so for the next three years. (3) The king needed money to effect the colonization of Ulster and that’s why he created the title of baronage. He planned to create 200 titles of baronet for gentlemen of suitable state and lineage, whom would pay for the upkeep for three years of thirty infantry in Ulster or they could also pay the king’s exchequer the sum of £ 1095. In addition to this fee, the baronet was required to pay £1200 as fees to be paid to the officials who were putting forth the patent for the baronetage. (4) Although the baronets were not knights they would receive the title of ‘Sir’. (5) Once Charles I was in power, he too used baronetage as a way to increase income, however, he went above the 200 allowed titles that his father established and increased it by 158 members. In 1625, he took it a step further and added a Scottish branch of baronets in which he allowed 511 members.(6)

BN: Some (but not all) of the stuff concerning royal finances could be move to a page on that, since it is not directly on the baronetage.

(1)Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged. S.v. "baronet." Retrieved February 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/baronet (2)Katherine S. Van Eerde “The Jacobean Baronets: An Issue between King and Parliament” The Journal of Modern History , Vol. 33, No. 2 (Jun., 1961), pp. 137-147 (3)Ibid, par 4. (4)http://www.founderspatriots.org/articles/baronets.htm (5)Ibid, par. 4. (6)Ibid, par. 5.