AFGB

Great Britain

AFGB admits members of the peerage and the gentry, using the right to heraldic arms as the main criterion for determining membership in the British nobility. All persons who have been granted arms by the College of Arms or Lord Lyon, as well as their male-line descendants entitled to the arms (or, in Scotland, entitled to matriculate a differenced version thereof) according to the Law of Arms may be admitted to the organisation. The AFGB utilises the same test of nobility as the Order of Malta, which equates the right to arms and the status of gentleman confirmed by it with untitled nobility in its British association. Feudal barons, esquires or gentlemen by prescription or office who are not also armigerous cannot be admitted to AFGB, but knights, baronets and peers can theoretically, even though a knighthood or hereditary title normally qualifies one for a grant of arms. AFGB only recognises a grant of arms as a nobiliary act if the recipient is a British citizen or is naturalised later.