Lord paramount

Feudal titles and status

Lord paramount / Territorial lord

Tenant-in-chief

Mesne lord

Lord of the manor / Overlord / Vogt / Liege lord

Esquire / Gentleman / Landed gentry

Franklin / Yeoman / Retinue / Vavasour

Husbandman

Free tenant

Domestic servant

Vagabond

Serf / Villein / Bordar / Cottar

Slave

v t e

A lord paramount is a term of art in feudal law describing an overlord who holds his own fief from no superior lord. It thus describes a person who holds allodial title, owing no socage or feudal obligations such as military service. This was distinguished from a mesne lord who held his own fief from a superior.