(compounded of two French words, par, i.e. per, and monter a fendre), signifies in our law the "highest lord of the fee, of lands, tenements, and hereditaments." As there may be a lord within whose lands are held of an inferior lord, who holds them of a superior under certain services; so this superior lord is lord paramount. Also the king is the chief lord, or lord paramount of all the lands in the kingdom. Co. Lit. 1.