A peer of the realm is a member of the highest aristocratic social order outside the ruling dynasty of the kingdom.
Notable examples are:
a member of the peerages in the United Kingdom, who is a hereditary peer or a life peer
a member of the Peerage of France (from French noble style "pair" in monarchies), of a similar order, as used in
the Kingdom of France
the Kingdom of Jerusalem (crusader state)
the Monarchy of Canada: Canadian nobility in the Peerage of France
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 digniti...
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Uniforme dos Pares do Reino (1860) - Manuel Maria Bordalo Pinheiro, Arquivo Histórico Parlamentar.png
Uniform of the Peers of the Realm. 1860 watercolor by Manuel Maria Bordalo Pinheiro.