From the Conquest to the time of Richard II., only barons-by-
tenure, the descendants of the companions of the Conqueror, were
invited by writ to Parliament. That monarch made an innovation, and
invited others who were not barons-by-tenure. The first dukedom was
created the 11th of Edward III., and the first viscount the 18th
Henry VI.

Edward IV. seized upon the lands granted by former kings, and gave
them to his own followers, and thus created a feeling of uneasiness
in the minds of the nobility, and paved the way for the events
which were accomplished by a succeeding dynasty. The decision in
the Taltarum case opened the question of succession; and Edward's
efforts to put down retainers was the precursor of the Tudor
policy.

We have a picture of the state of society in the reign of Edward
IV. in the Paston Memoirs, written by Margaret Paston. Her husband,
John Paston, was heir to Sir John Fastolf. He was bound by the will
to establish in Caister Castle, Fastolf s own mansion, a college of
religious men to pray for his benefactor's soul. But in those days
might was right, and the Duke of Norfolk, fancying that he should
like the house for himself, quietly took possession of it. At that
time, Edward was just seated on the throne, and Edward had just
been reported to Paston to have said in reference to another suit,
that

"He would be your good lord therein as he would to the poorest man
in England. He would hold with you in your right; and as for favor,
he will not be understood that he shall show favor more to one man