When William the Conqueror (reigned AD 1066-1087) gave the lands of 4000 English thegns to 200 or so of his Norman barons, he created a powerful elite. Land meant power, as did the barons’ right to retain armed followers. Usually the nobles were the king’s natural allies and agents, but occasionally groups of barons felt threatened or excluded by royal policy and took steps to ‘restore’ the balance of power as they thought it should be. An example of this was when they forced King John (reigned 1199-1216) to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.

In the reign of Edward II (1307-27), opposition to his favourite, Piers Gaveston, was led by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (about 1278-1322). Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (about 1270-1317), worked closely with Lancaster and gave Gaveston up to be killed in 1312. Humphry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford (about 1276-1322), also took part in Gaveston’s murder.

During the Wars of the Roses (1455-78) the rivalry of York and Lancaster and their allies almost destroyed the English crown. Such was the power of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as ‘Warwick the Kingmaker’, that he could put the Yorkist king Edward IV on the throne, depose him in 1470 and restore the Lancastrian Henry VI.