EDWARD III's patronage to his new men came from the resources outlined in the preceding chapters. Although these resources could be similar to those available in previous reigns, the ways in which they were used in the period 1330–77 could vary considerably from their earlier use. In some ways, Edward's royal patronage programme knew no previous equal, particularly considering its link with the development of an official parliamentary peerage. Indeed, by taking on the task of promoting sixty-eight men over the course of the reign and finding the resources to support them – to the extent of giving varying levels of self sufficiency to about half of them and of keeping the other half content – Edward was doing something quite novel in the annals of English history. By raising such men into this increasingly closed institution, with the types and combinations of grants he was able to use, Edward was making clear that, though the nobility might now have rights to inheritance as well as more definition as a class, it was still ultimately the king who decided who was to be included in the ranks of the most important political and social order in the land. Unlike today, however, in the Middle Ages novelty on any scale, especially at the hand of a monarch, was not seen as a virtue.