Commission and Association for the Armigerous Families of Great Britain

The Commission and Association for the Armigerous Families of Great Britain (AFGB) is the sole British nobility association recognised by the European Commission of the Nobility. It was founded in 1996.^[1]

AFGB was founded in 1996 under the auspices of the 17th Duke of Norfolk.^[1] Throughout its existence, it has cooperated with the English and Scottish heraldic authorities, and some of their representatives, such as Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfield, have joined the organisation.

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[1]

Apart from being an association which admits persons who belong to the British nobility, AFGB also operates a commission, which seeks to coordinate the activities of more narrow organisations such as the Hereditary Peerage Association and facilitate their communication with CILANE and foreign nobility associations. The Duke of Norfolk presides over it.^[1]

• Coordinator of AFGB: Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfield, Bt, former Norroy and Ulster King of Arms
• Delegate to CILANE: Michael Sayer, Esq.
• Vice-Delegates to CILANE: Lord Abinger and Sir Richard Rowley, Bt
• Youth Organiser for CILANE: Viscount Jocelyn

• CILANE
• Hereditary Peerage Association
• Standing Council of the Baronetage

• British nobility
• Peerage of Great Britain
• Nobility associations

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