self create a strong suspicion that he was no
baron, and in another place we find him reckoned among the bannerets.
The other three do not appear to have been summoned, their writs
probably being lost. One of them, Sir Thomas Erpyngham, a statesman well
known in the history of those times, is said to have been a
banneret;[314] certainly he was not a baron. It is not unlikely that the
two others, Henry Percy (Hotspur) and Gournay, an officer of the
household, were also bannerets; they cannot at least be supposed to be
barons, neither were they ever summoned to any subsequent parliament.
Yet in the only record we possess of votes actually given in the house
of lords they appear to have been reckoned among the rest.[315]

[Sidenote: Creation of peers by statute.]

The next method of conferring an honour of peerage was by creation in
parliament. This was adopted by Edward III. in several instances, though
always, I believe, for the higher titles of duke or earl. It is laid
down by lawyers that whatever the king is said in an ancient record to
have done in full parliament must be taken to have proceeded from the
whole legislature. As a question of fact, indeed, it might be doubted
whether, in many proceedings where this expression is used, and
especially in the creation of peers, the assent of the commons was
specifically and deliberately given. It seems hardly consonant to the
circumstances of their order under Edward III. to suppose their sanction
necessary in what seemed so little to concern their interest. Yet there
is an instance in the fortieth year of that prince where the lords
individually, and the commons with one voice, are declared to have
consented, at the king's request, that the lord de Coucy, who had
married his daughter, and was already possessed of estates in England,
might be raised to the dignity of an earl, whenever the king should
determine what earldom he would confer upon him.[316] Under Richard II.
the marquisate of Dublin is granted to Vere by full consent of all the
estates. But this instrument, besides the unusual name of dignity,
contained an extensive jurisdiction and authority over Ireland.[317] In
the same reign Lancaster was made duke of Guienne, and the duke of
York's son created earl of Rutland, to hold during his father's life.
The consent of the lords and commons is expressed in their patents, and
they are entered upon the roll of parliament.[318] Henry V. created his
brothers dukes of B