 The story of the Barons in its conventional telling implies that we're all rich people in waiting, as though we're all just sitting near the top of a feudal hierarchy and just need the state to leave us and our property in peace. The Barons, though, were not ordinary folks. They were landlords whose vast holdings included castles and entire villages, and their immense power and wealth came from living off the labor of others and taxing them into deprivation.