Paramount (derived from the Anglo-French word paramont, which means up above, or par a mont, meaning up or on top of the mountain) is the highest authority, or that being of the greatest importance. The word was first used as a term of feudal law, of the overlord, the lord paramount, who held his fief from no superior lord, and was thus opposed to mesne lord, one who held from a superior. To those who held their fiefs from one who was not a lord paramount was given the correlative term paravail, (from par d val, meaning in the valley). The word was confused by English lawyers with "avail," help, assistance, profit, and applied to the actual working tenant of the land, the lowest tenant or occupier.
A well-documented example of paramountcy is the Lordship of Bowland. In 1311, it was subsumed as part of the Honour of Clitheroe into the Earldom of Lancaster. After 1351, it was administered as part of the Duchy of Lancaster, with the Duke (from 1399, the Sovereign) acknowledged lord paramount over the Forest of Bowland and the ten manors of the Liberty of Bowland. As lord paramount, he was styled Lord King of Bowland.
The Marquess of Exeter is hereditary Lord Paramount of Peterborough.
The term Lord Paramount has been invoked in other common law jurisdistions, including New York (1852). In 1992 the position of Queen Elizabeth II as Lord Paramount in respect of the system of land tenure in Australia was affirmed and explained by the High Court of Australia ruling in the Mabo v Queensland (No 2) case.