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:''For the peerage of the United Kingdom, see British peerage.''
The 'Peerage of France' () was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. It was abolished in 1789 during the French Revolution, but it reappeared after the Revolution. In 1830, hereditary peerage was abolished, but life-time peerage continued to exist until it was definitively abolished in 1848.
The prestigious title and position of 'Peer of France' (French: ''Pair de France'') was held by the greatest and highest-ranking members of the French nobility. In that respect the French peerage was very different from the British peerage (to whom the term Barons, their lowest class, was applied in its generic sense), because the vast majority of French nobles of ranks from Baron to Duke were ''not'' Peers.^[1] The title of Peer of France was an extraordinary honour granted only to very few dukes or counts (including princes of the French church).
The French peerage was also imported into the Holy Land during the Crusades (see below).

Contents

The words "pair" and "pairie"

Under the Monarchy: feudal period and ancien régime

Under the First Republic and the First Empire : the revolutionary and Napoleonic period

Under the restoration of the Monarchy : the Chamber of Peers

Peerage of Jerusalem

See also

Sources and references

The words "pair" and "pairie"

The French word pairie is the equivalent of the English peerage, in the sense of an individual title carrying the rank of Pair, Peer in English, which derives from the Latin ''par'', equal, and signifies the members of an exclusive body of noblemen and prelates, considered to be the highest social order, not taking in account the royal dynasty, and even in a certain way as equals of the monarch as he is seen though their subjects and vassals, as their primus inter pares.
The main uses of the word refer to two historical traditions in the French kingdom, before and after the First French Empire of Napoleon I of France. The word also exists in a crusader imitation.
There is also an etymological theory that the French, and later English, word baron, via the Latin form ''baro'', would also derive from the Latin ''par'', which would fit its early sense, not as a title below comital ranks but used for the whole peerage.

Under the Monarchy: feudal period and ancien régime

In the Middle Ages, the dignity of peerage was conferred by the French king on certain of his preeminent vassals, both clerics and laymen.
Louis VII (1137–1180) is thought by some historians as the creator of the French peerage system.^[2]
Peerage was attached to a specific territorial jurisdicton, be it an episcopal see in the case of the episcopal peerages or a fief in the case of secular peerages. Peerages attached to fiefs were transmissible or inheritable with the fief, and these fiefs are often designated as ''pairie-duché'' for duchies and ''pairie-comté'' for countships.
By 1216 there were nine peers:

★ Archbishop of Reims who had the distinction of crowning the king

★ Bishop of Langres

★ Bishop of Beauvais

★ Bishop of Châlons

★ Bishop of Noyon

★ Duke of Normandy

★ Duke of Burgundy

★ Duke of Aquitaine also called Duke of Guyenne

★ Count of Champagne
The presence of Normandy – held by the English crown by Angevin heritage – was theoretical, since in French eyes it had been forfeited to the crown in 1202.
A few years later and before 1228 three peers were added to make the total of twelve peers:

★ Bishop of Laon

★ Count of Flanders

★ Count of Toulouse
These twelve peerages are known as the ''ancient peerage'' or ''pairie ancienne'', and the number twelve is sometimes said to have been chosen to mirror the 12 paladins of Charlemagne in the ''Chanson de geste''. Parallels may also be seen with mythical Knights of the Round Table under King Arthur. So popular was this notion, that for a long time people thought peerage had originated in the reign of Charlemagne, who was considered the model king and shining example for knighthood and nobility.
The dozen pairs played a role in the royal ''sacre'' or consecration, during the liturgy of the coronation of the king, attested to as early as 1179, symbolically upholding his crown, and each original peer had a specific role, often with an attribute. Since the peers were never twelve during the coronation (due to the fact that most lay peerages were forfeited to or merged in the crown), delegates were chosen by the king, mainly between the princes of the blood.
This paralleled the arch-offices attached to the electorates, the even more prestigious and powerful first college in the Holy Roman Empire, the other heir of Charlemagne's Frankish empire.
The twelve original peers were divided in two classes, six clerical peers hierarchically above the six lay peers, which were themselves divided in two, three dukes above three counts:
|-
| width="10%" align="center" |
| width="33%" align="center" | Bishops
| width="33%" align="center" | Lay
|-
| width="10%" rowspan="3" align="center" | Dukes
| width="33%" align="center" | Reims, archbishop, premier peer, anoints and crowns the king
| width="33%" align="center" | Burgundy, premier lay peer, bears the crown and fastens the belt
|-
| width="33%" align="center" | Laon, bears the ''sainte ampoule'' containing the sacred ointment
| width="33%" align="center" | Normandy, holds the first square banner
|-
| width="33%" align="center" | Langres, only of the five bishops not in the Reims province, bears the sceptre
| width="33%" align="center" |Aquitaine also called Guyenne after its refounding, holds the second square banner
|-
| width="10%" rowspan="3" align="center" | Counts
| width="33%" align="center" | Beauvais, bears the royal mantle
| width="33%" align="center" | Toulouse, carries the spurs
|-
| width="33%" align="center" | Châlons, bears the royal ring
| width="33%" align="center" | Flanders, carries the sword
|-
| width="33%" align="center" | Noyon, bears the belt
| width="33%" align="center" | Champagne, holds the royal standard
Early in the 13th century the Duchy of Normandy was absorbed by the French crown, and later in that century two more of the lay peerages were absorbed by the crown, so that in 1297 three new peerages were created, the County of Artois, the Duchy of Anjou and the Duchy of Bretagne, to compensate for the three peerages that had disappeared.
Thus, beginning in 1297 the practice started of creating new peerages by letters patent, specifying the fief to which the peerage was attached, and the conditions under which the fief could be transmitted (e.g. only male heirs) for princes of the blood who held an apanage. By 1328 all apanagists would be peers.
The number of lay peerages increased over time from 7 in 1297 to 26 in 1400, 21 in 1505, and 24 in