A Court baron is an English or Scottish manorial court dating from the Middle Ages, the equivalent in England of the hallmote or hall moot of which H. R. Loyn observes "The hall moots of the twelfth century with their Saxon name might well be pre-Conquest institutions though there is no positive proof to that effect. The court was the lowest in the hierarchy of English courts in the middle ages, and the only one in which common villagers routinely appeared.

In the 17th century it was laid down by Sir Edward Coke in his Institutes of the Lawes of England that a manor had two courts, "the first by the common law, and is called a court baron," the freeholders (barons") being its suitors; the other a customary court for the copyholders. William Stubbs adopted this explanation, but Maitland held that court baron means curia baronis, "la court de seigneur," the seigneurial court, and that there was no evidence for there being more than one court. La court de baron is a 13th-century manual for the proper manner of holding a court baron The old view that at least two freeholders were required for its composition is also now discarded. Maitland's conclusion was that the "court baron" was not even differentiated from the "court leet" at the close of the 13th century, but that there was a distinction of jurisdictional rights, some courts having only feudal rights, while others, had regalities as well. When the court leet was differentiated, the court baron remained with feudal rights alone. These rights traced to a lord's jurisdiction over his men rather than to his possession of the manor, although in practice, from an early date, the court was associated with the manor.

William I (circa 1028 – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror or William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. Descended from Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035 under the name of William II. He faced a long struggle to establish his power when he became duke at the age of seven or eight, but by 1060 his hold over Normandy was secure.

William was the son of the unmarried Duke Robert the Magnificent of Normandy by his mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued the first years of his rule. During his childhood and adolescence, the Norman aristocracy battled each other, both for control of the child duke and for their own ends. In 1047 William was able to quash a rebellion and begin to establish his authority over the duchy, a process that was not complete until about 1060. His marriage in the 1050s to Matilda of Flanders provided him with a powerful ally in the neighbouring county of Flanders. By the time of his marriage, William was able to secure the appointment of his supporters as bishops and abbots in the Norman church. His consolidation of power allowed him to expand his horizons, and by 1062 William was able to secure control of the neighbouring county of Maine.