Peer of the realm

The uniform of a Portuguese Peer of the Realm while serving in the Chamber of Most Worthy Peers.

Peer of the Realm is a term for a member of the (aristocratic) highest social order (not considering the ruling dynasty) in a kingdom, notably:

• a member of the peerage in the British Isles who is a hereditary peer or a life peer
• the English rendering of a member of a similar order in other monarchies, derived from the French noble style of pair as used in
  • the French kingdom
  • the crusader state kingdom of Jerusalem
• nobility proper of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who enjoyed hereditary paritas: those who would sit by hereditary right in Land Parliaments, or be Royal Electors, enjoy personal immunity, and the right to be judged only by the King's Court or the Court of Peers; also the exclusive right to be granted State or Land dignities and titles. The Skartabelli who were middle-nobility in law were not peers, whilst noblemen who were not direct barons of the Crown but held land from other Lords were not peers de facto as they would not enjoy full noble privileges.
• a member of the Portuguese Chamber of Most Worthy Peers, upper house of the Cortes Gerais, during the constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom of Portugal

See also

• Chamber of Peers (disambiguation)
• House of Lords (disambiguation)

External links

• Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary Peer of the Realm
• www.oxforddictionaries.com Peer of the Realm