Foreign Prince
Encyclopedia
Foreign Prince is the English translation of prince étranger, a high, though somewhat ambiguous, rank at the French royal court of the ancien régime.
bore the title of prince as an indication of sovereignty
, either actual or potential. Aside from those who were or claimed to be monarchs
, it belonged to those who were in line to succeed to a royal
or independent throne. France had several categories of prince
in the post-medieval era. They frequently quarrelled, and sometimes sued each other and members of the nobility, over precedence
and distinctions
.
The foreign princes ranked in France approximately above "titular princes" (princes de titre, holders of a legal but foreign title of prince with no association to an hereditary realm
), and above most titled nobles, including the highest among these, duke
s. They ranked below acknowledged members of the House of Capet
, France's ruling dynasty
since the tenth century. Included in that royal category (in ascending order) were the so-called "legitimised princes" (princes légitimés, the legitimised children and male-line descendants of French kings), the princes du sang
, legitimate male-line great-grandchildren and remoter descendants of past French kings, and the immediate royal family
(famille du roi), consisting of the legitimate children (enfants de France
) and male-line grandchildren (petits-enfants de France) of a French king or dauphin). This hierarchy
in France evolved slowly at the king's court, barely taking into account any more exalted status a foreign prince might enjoy in his dynasty's realm. It was not clear, outside the halls of the Parlement of Paris, whether foreign princes ranked above, below, or with the holder of a French peerage.
Foreign princes were of three kinds:
of chivalric
folklore
, whether in exile
or in search of royal patronage
, to win renown at arms, international influence, or a private fortune, foreign princelings often migrated to the French court, regarded as both the most magnificent and munificent in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some ruled small border realms (e.g., the principalities of Dombes
, Orange
, Neuchâtel, Sedan
), etc., while others inherited or were granted large properties in France (e.g., Guise, Rohan, La Tour d'Auvergne). Still others came to France as relatively destitute refugee
s (e.g. ex-Queen Catherine of England
, Prince Palatine Eduard
). Most found that, with assiduity and patience, they were well-received by France's kings as living adornments to his majesty
and, if they remained in attendance at court, were often gifted with military commands, estates
, governorships, embassies, church sinecure
s, titles and, sometimes, splendid dowries
as the consorts of royal princesses.
But they were often also disruptive at court and occasionally proved threatening to the king. Their high birth not only attracted the king's attention, but sometimes drew the allegiance of French nobles, frustrated courtiers, soldiers-of-fortune
and henchmen
, ambitious bourgeoisie
, scurrilous malcontents, and even provinces in search of an advocate or protector (e.g., the Neapolitan Republic
)-- often against or in rivalry to the French Crown itself. Deeming themselves to belong to the same class as the King, they tended to be proud, and some schemed for ever-higher rank and power, or challenged the king's or parliament's authority. Sometimes they defied the royal will and barricaded themselves in their provincial castles (e.g., Philippe Emmanuel of Lorraine, duc de Mercœur), occasionally waging open war on the king (e.g., the La Tour d'Auvergne dukes of Bouillon
), or intriguing against him with other French princes (e.g., the Fronde
s), or contracting alliances with foreign powers (Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, duchesse de Chevreuse
).
body, the Parlement of Paris, if they also held a peerage
. In which case their legal precedence derived from its date of registration in that body. Their notorious disputes with ducal peers of the realm
, remembered thanks to the memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon
, was due to their lack of rank per se in the Parlement, where peers (the highest tier of French nobility, mostly dukes) held precedence immediately after the princes du sang
. Whereas at the King's table and in society
generally, the prestige of the princes étrangers exceeded that of the ordinary peer, the duke-peers denied this pre-eminence, both in legal suits and in refusal to cede precedence to them, regardless of the king's commands.
They also clashed with the upstart
s at court favored by Henry III
, who raised to peerage, fortune, and singular honor a number of fashion
able young men of the minor nobility. These so-called mignons
were disdained and resisted by France's princes initially. Later, endowed with hereditary wealth and honors, their families were absorbed into the peerage, and their daughters' dowries were sought by the princely class (e.g., the dukedom of Joyeuse eventually fell by marriage into the princely hands of, respectively, the ducs de Montpensier and the ducs de Guise.
More frequently, they vied for place and prestige with each other, with the princes légitimés, and sometimes even with the princes du sang.
Most renowned among the foreign princes was the devoutly Roman Catholic House of Guise
which, as the Valois kings approached extinction and the Huguenot
s aggrandized in defense of Protestantism, cast ambitious eyes upon the throne itself, hoping to occupy it but determined to dominate it. So great was their pride that François, Duke of Guise, although merely a subject, dared to openly court Margaret of Valois, the daughter of Henri II
. He was obliged to hastily wed a princesse étrangère, Catherine of Cleves
, to avoid bodily harm from her offended brothers (each of whom eventually succeeded to the crown as, respectively, Francis II
, Charles IX
, Henry III
). After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
the Guises, triumphant in the kingdom, proved overbearing toward the king, driving Henry III to have the duke assassinated in his presence.
The status of foreign prince was not automatic: it required the king's acknowledgement and authorization of each of the privileges associated with the status. Some individuals and families claimed entitlement to the rank but never received it. Most infamous among these was Prince Eugene of Savoy
, whose cold reception at the court of his mother's family drove him into the arms of the Holy Roman Emperor
, where he became the martial
scourge of France for a generation.
Some of France's leading ducal families, denied the rank of prince, simply usurped the title. Often it was claimed on behalf of their eldest sons, subtly reminding the court that the princely title was subordinate — at least in the law — to that of peer
, while minimising the risk that the princely title would be challenged or forbidden. Typical were the ducs de La Rochefoucauld
. Their claim to descend from the sovereign duke Guillaume IV of Guyenne
and their inter-marriages with the sovereign dukes of Mirandola failed to procure for them designation as foreign princes. Yet the ducal heir was known as the "prince de Marcillac", although no such principality ever existed, within or without France.
, were commonly and indifferently borne by foreign princes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries without any implication that their precedence was indicated or governed by the rank of the title: for instance, the title vicomte de Turenne, made famous by the renowned French marshal, merely reflected family tradition, but he ranked as a prince étranger, being a cadet of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, which reigned over the mini-duchy of Bouillon
until the French Revolution
.
In the eighteenth century, as dukes and lesser noblemen arrogated to themselves the title "prince de X", more of the foreign princes began to do likewise. Like the princes du sang (e.g. Condé
, La Roche-sur-Yon) it was always one of their prerogatives to unilaterally assume a princely titre de courtoisie
attached to the name of a seigneurie
, e.g., prince de Joinville (Guise), prince de Soubise (Rohan), prince de Talmond (La Trémoïlle), even when the eponymous property was no longer held by the family. These empty titles were passed down within families as if they were hereditary peerages.
Moreover, some noble titles of prince conferred on Frenchmen by the Holy Roman Empire
, the Papacy, and Spain were eventually accepted at the French court (e.g., Prince de Broglie, Princesse des Ursins
, Prince de Rache) became more common in the eighteenth century. But they carried no official rank, and their social status was not equal to that of either peers or foreign princes.
Unsurprisingly, foreign princes began adopting a custom increasingly common outside of France; prefixing their Christian names with "le prince". The genealogist par excellence of the French nobility, Père Anselme
, initially deprecated such neologistic practice with insertion of a "dit" ("styled") in his biographical entries, but after the reign of Louis XIV he records the usage among foreign princes without qualification.
(Your Highness).
Although Saint-Simon and other peers were loathe to concede these prerogatives to the princes étrangers, they were even more jealous of two other privileges, the so-called pour ("for") and the tabouret ("stool"). The former referred to the rooms assigned at the palace of Versailles
to allow members of the royal dynasty, high-ranking officers of the royal household, senior peers and favored courtiers the honor of living under the same roof as the king. These rooms were neither well-appointed nor well-situated relative to those of the royal family, usually being small and remote. Nonetheless, les pours distinguished the court's inner circle from its hangers-on.
The tabouret was even more highly valued. It consisted of the right to sit on a stool
or ployant (folding seat), in the presence of the king or queen. Whereas the queen had her throne, the filles de France and petite-filles their armchairs, and princesses du sang cushioned seats with hard backs, duchesses whose husbands were peers sat, gowned and bejewelled, in a semicircle around the queen and lesser royalties, on low, unsteady stools without any back support — and reckoned themselves fortunate among the women of France.
Whereas the wife of a duke-and-peer could use a ployant, other duchesses, domestic or foreign, lacked the prerogative. But not only could the wife of any prince étranger claim a tabouret, but so could his daughters and sisters. This extended privilege was based on the fact that a peer was an officer of the Parlement of Paris, while the rank held by a prince derived from a dignity rooted in his blood rather than in his function. Thus a duchess-peeress shares in her husband's de jure
rank as an official
, but that rank is extended to no other of his family. Yet all descendants in the legitimate male-line of a prince share his blood, and thus his status, as does his wife and the wives of his patrilineal
kinsmen.
Terminology
In medieval Europe, a noblemanNobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
bore the title of prince as an indication of sovereignty
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
, either actual or potential. Aside from those who were or claimed to be monarchs
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
, it belonged to those who were in line to succeed to a royal
King
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...
or independent throne. France had several categories of prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
in the post-medieval era. They frequently quarrelled, and sometimes sued each other and members of the nobility, over precedence
Precedence
Precedence may refer to:* Message precedence of military communications traffic* Order of precedence, the ceremonial hierarchy within a nation or state* Order of operations, in mathematics and computer programming...
and distinctions
Protocol (diplomacy)
In international politics, protocol is the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state.A protocol is a rule which guides how an activity should be performed, especially in the field of diplomacy. In diplomatic services and governmental fields of endeavor protocols are often unwritten guidelines...
.
The foreign princes ranked in France approximately above "titular princes" (princes de titre, holders of a legal but foreign title of prince with no association to an hereditary realm
Realm
A realm is a dominion of a monarch or other sovereign ruler.The Old French word reaume, modern French royaume, was the word first adopted in English; the fixed modern spelling does not appear until the beginning of the 17th century...
), and above most titled nobles, including the highest among these, duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
s. They ranked below acknowledged members of the House of Capet
House of Capet
The House of Capet, or The Direct Capetian Dynasty, , also called The House of France , or simply the Capets, which ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328, was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty – itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians. As rulers of France, the dynasty...
, France's ruling dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
since the tenth century. Included in that royal category (in ascending order) were the so-called "legitimised princes" (princes légitimés, the legitimised children and male-line descendants of French kings), the princes du sang
Prince du Sang
A prince of the blood was a person who was legitimately descended in the male line from the monarch of a country. In France, the rank of prince du sang was the highest held at court after the immediate family of the king during the ancien régime and the Bourbon Restoration...
, legitimate male-line great-grandchildren and remoter descendants of past French kings, and the immediate royal family
Royal family
A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
(famille du roi), consisting of the legitimate children (enfants de France
Fils de France
Fils de France was the style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. A daughter was known as a fille de France .The children of the dauphin, who was the king's heir apparent, were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his...
) and male-line grandchildren (petits-enfants de France) of a French king or dauphin). This hierarchy
Hierarchy
A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...
in France evolved slowly at the king's court, barely taking into account any more exalted status a foreign prince might enjoy in his dynasty's realm. It was not clear, outside the halls of the Parlement of Paris, whether foreign princes ranked above, below, or with the holder of a French peerage.
Foreign princes were of three kinds:
- those domicileDomicile*In architecture, a general term for a place of residence or "permanent residence" in legal terms*Domicile , the zodiac sign over which a planet has rulership...
d in France but recognized by the current king as junior memberCadet branchCadet branch is a term in genealogy to describe the lineage of the descendants of the younger sons of a monarch or patriarch. In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets – titles, realms, fiefs, property and income – have...
s of dynastiesDynastyA dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
that reigned abroad (e.g., the GuiseHouse of GuiseThe House of Guise was a French ducal family, partly responsible for the French Wars of Religion.The Guises were Catholic, and Henry Guise wanted to end growing Calvinist influence...
cadetCadetA cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...
s of the House of LorraineHouse of LorraineThe House of Lorraine, the main and now only remaining line known as Habsburg-Lorraine, is one of the most important and was one of the longest-reigning royal houses in the history of Europe...
, the Nevers cadets of Mantua's House of GonzagaHouse of GonzagaThe Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708.-History:In 1433, Gianfrancesco I assumed the title of Marquis of Mantua, and in 1530 Federico II received the title of Duke of Mantua. In 1531, the family acquired the Duchy of Monferrato through marriage...
, the NemoursDuke of NemoursIn the 12th and 13th centuries the Lordship of Nemours, in the Gatinais, France, was in possession of the house of Villebeon, a member of which, Gautier, was marshal of France in the middle of the 13th century...
cadets of the Dukes of SavoyHouse of SavoyThe House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...
, etc.) Above them were actual deposedDeposition (politics)Deposition by political means concerns the removal of a politician or monarch. It may be done by coup, impeachment, invasion or forced abdication...
rulers and their consortConsortConsort may refer to:Titles:* Queen consort, wife of a reigning king* Prince consort, husband of a reigning queen* King consort, rarely used alternative title for husband of a reigning queen...
s (e.g. King James II of EnglandJames II of EnglandJames II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
, Queen Christina of SwedenChristina of SwedenChristina , later adopted the name Christina Alexandra, was Queen regnant of Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Grand Princess of Finland, and Duchess of Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and Karelia, from 1633 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora...
, Suzanne-Henriette, Duchess of MantuaCharles IV, Duke of MantuaFerdinando Carlo Gonzaga was the only child of Duke Charles II of Mantua and Montferrat, and the last ruler of the Duchy of Mantua of the House of Gonzaga.-Biography:...
, etc.), who were usually accorded full protocolProtocol (diplomacy)In international politics, protocol is the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state.A protocol is a rule which guides how an activity should be performed, especially in the field of diplomacy. In diplomatic services and governmental fields of endeavor protocols are often unwritten guidelines...
ar courtesies at court, for as long as they remained welcome in France. - rulers of petty principalitiesPrincipalityA principality is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or by a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince....
who habitually sojourned at the French court (e.g. Princes of MonacoPrince of MonacoThe Reigning Prince or Princess of Monaco is the sovereign monarch and head of state of the Principality of Monaco. All Princes or Princesses thus far have taken the name of the House of Grimaldi, but have belonged to various other houses in male line...
, Dukes of BouillonLords of BouillonThe lordship of Bouillon was in the 10th and 11th century one of the core holdings of the Ardennes-Bouillon dynasty, and appears to have been their original patrimonial possession.Murray, p. 10....
, etc.) - those who claimed membership in a formerly sovereign dynasty, either in the male-line (e.g. Rohan) or who pretendedPretenderA pretender is one who claims entitlement to an unavailable position of honour or rank. Most often it refers to a former monarch, or descendant thereof, whose throne is occupied or claimed by a rival, or has been abolished....
to a foreign throne as heirs in the female-line (e.g. La TrémoilleLa TrémoilleMembers of the House of La Trémoille, were part of an old French family which derives its name from a village in the department of Vienne....
).
Status
Like knights-errantKnight-errant
A knight-errant is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. "Errant," meaning wandering or roving, indicates how the knight-errant would typically wander the land in search of adventures to prove himself as a knight, such as in a pas d'armes.The first known appearance of the term...
of chivalric
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, whether in exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
or in search of royal patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
, to win renown at arms, international influence, or a private fortune, foreign princelings often migrated to the French court, regarded as both the most magnificent and munificent in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some ruled small border realms (e.g., the principalities of Dombes
Dombes
The Dombes is an area in South-Eastern France, once an independent municipality, formerly part of the province of Burgundy, and now a district comprised in the département of Ain, and bounded W. by the Saône River, by the Rhône, E. by the Ain and N...
, Orange
Principality of Orange
The Principality of Orange was a feudal state in Provence, in the south of modern-day France, on the left bank of the River Rhone north of the city of Avignon....
, Neuchâtel, Sedan
Sedan, France
Sedan is a commune in France, a sub-prefecture of the Ardennes department in northern France.-Geography:The historic centre is built on a peninsula formed by an arc of the Meuse River. It is around from the Belgian border.-History:...
), etc., while others inherited or were granted large properties in France (e.g., Guise, Rohan, La Tour d'Auvergne). Still others came to France as relatively destitute refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s (e.g. ex-Queen Catherine of England
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza was a Portuguese infanta and queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles II.She married the king in 1662...
, Prince Palatine Eduard
Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern
Sir Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern KG was the sixth son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, of the House of Wittelsbach, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and Elizabeth Stuart....
). Most found that, with assiduity and patience, they were well-received by France's kings as living adornments to his majesty
Majesty
Majesty is an English word derived ultimately from the Latin maiestas, meaning "greatness".- Origin :Originally, during the Roman republic, the word maiestas was the legal term for the supreme status and dignity of the state, to be respected above everything else...
and, if they remained in attendance at court, were often gifted with military commands, estates
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
, governorships, embassies, church sinecure
Sinecure
A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...
s, titles and, sometimes, splendid dowries
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
as the consorts of royal princesses.
But they were often also disruptive at court and occasionally proved threatening to the king. Their high birth not only attracted the king's attention, but sometimes drew the allegiance of French nobles, frustrated courtiers, soldiers-of-fortune
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
and henchmen
Henchman
Henchman referred originally to one who attended on a horse for his employer, that is, a horse groom. Hence, like constable and marshal, also originally stable staff, henchman became the title of a subordinate official in a royal court or noble household...
, ambitious bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
, scurrilous malcontents, and even provinces in search of an advocate or protector (e.g., the Neapolitan Republic
Neapolitan Republic (1647)
The Neapolitan Republic was a Republic created in Naples, which lasted from 22 October 1647 to 5 April 1648. It began after the revolt led by Masaniello and Giulio Genoino against the Spanish viceroys....
)-- often against or in rivalry to the French Crown itself. Deeming themselves to belong to the same class as the King, they tended to be proud, and some schemed for ever-higher rank and power, or challenged the king's or parliament's authority. Sometimes they defied the royal will and barricaded themselves in their provincial castles (e.g., Philippe Emmanuel of Lorraine, duc de Mercœur), occasionally waging open war on the king (e.g., the La Tour d'Auvergne dukes of Bouillon
Frédéric Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, duc de Bouillon
Frédéric Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, duc de Bouillon was prince of the independent principality of Sedan, and general in the French royal army....
), or intriguing against him with other French princes (e.g., the Fronde
Fronde
The Fronde was a civil war in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, which Parisian mobs used to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin....
s), or contracting alliances with foreign powers (Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, duchesse de Chevreuse
Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, duchesse de Chevreuse
Marie de Rohan was a French aristocrat, famed for being the center of many of the intrigues of the first half of the 17th century in France...
).
Rivalry with peers
Although during formal receptions at court (the so-called Honneurs du Louvre) their sovereign origins were acknowledged in exaggerated prose, foreign princes were only members of the nation's main judicial and deliberativeLegislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
body, the Parlement of Paris, if they also held a peerage
Peerage of France
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 in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...
. In which case their legal precedence derived from its date of registration in that body. Their notorious disputes with ducal peers of the realm
Peerage of France
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 in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...
, remembered thanks to the memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy commonly known as Saint-Simon was a French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born in Paris...
, was due to their lack of rank per se in the Parlement, where peers (the highest tier of French nobility, mostly dukes) held precedence immediately after the princes du sang
Prince du Sang
A prince of the blood was a person who was legitimately descended in the male line from the monarch of a country. In France, the rank of prince du sang was the highest held at court after the immediate family of the king during the ancien régime and the Bourbon Restoration...
. Whereas at the King's table and in society
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
generally, the prestige of the princes étrangers exceeded that of the ordinary peer, the duke-peers denied this pre-eminence, both in legal suits and in refusal to cede precedence to them, regardless of the king's commands.
They also clashed with the upstart
Upstart
Upstart is an event-based replacement for the traditional init daemon — the method by which several Unix-like computer operating systems perform tasks when the computer is started. It was written by Scott James Remnant, a former employee of Canonical Ltd....
s at court favored by Henry III
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
, who raised to peerage, fortune, and singular honor a number of fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
able young men of the minor nobility. These so-called mignons
Les Mignons
Les Mignons was a term used by polemicists in the toxic atmosphere of the French Wars of Religion and taken up by the people of Paris, to designate the favourites of Henry III of France, from his return from Poland to reign in France in 1574, to his assassination in 1589, a disastrous end to which...
were disdained and resisted by France's princes initially. Later, endowed with hereditary wealth and honors, their families were absorbed into the peerage, and their daughters' dowries were sought by the princely class (e.g., the dukedom of Joyeuse eventually fell by marriage into the princely hands of, respectively, the ducs de Montpensier and the ducs de Guise.
More frequently, they vied for place and prestige with each other, with the princes légitimés, and sometimes even with the princes du sang.
Noted Foreign Princes
During the reign of Louis XIV, the families which held the status of prince étranger were:- Savoy Carignan, cadets of the sovereign Dukes of Savoy
- Guise, cadets of the reignReignA reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation or of a people . In most hereditary monarchies and some elective monarchies A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office...
ing Dukes of Lorraine - Rohan, descendants of the Dukes of Britanny
- La Tour d'AuvergneLa Tour d'AuvergneLa Tour d'Auvergne was a French noble family. Its senior branch, extinct in 1501, held the titles of count of Auvergne and count of Boulogne for about half a century. Its junior branch, extinct in 1802, held the title of duke of Bouillon since 1594 and the titles of duke of Albret and duke of...
, reigning Dukes of Bouillon - GrimaldiHouse of GrimaldiThe House of Grimaldi is associated with the history of the Republic of Genoa and of the Principality of Monaco.-History:The Grimaldi family descends from Grimaldo, a Genoese statesman at the time of the early Crusades. He might have been a son of Otto Canella, a consul of the Republic of Genoa in...
, reigning Princes of Monaco - La Trémoïlle, heirs of the bodyHeirs of the bodyHeirs of the body is the term for the English legal principle that certain types of property pass to a descendant of the original holder, recipient or grantee according to a fixed order of kinship...
of the Kings of NaplesKingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
of the deposed House of Trastamara (and nominal pretenders to the kingdoms of JerusalemKingdom of JerusalemThe Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
, CyprusKingdom of CyprusThe Kingdom of Cyprus was a Crusader kingdom on the island of Cyprus in the high and late Middle Ages, between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan.-History:...
, and ArmeniaArmenian Kingdom of CiliciaThe Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia , also known as the Cilician Armenia, Kingdom of Cilician Armenia or New Armenia, was an independent principality formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia...
.
Most renowned among the foreign princes was the devoutly Roman Catholic House of Guise
House of Guise
The House of Guise was a French ducal family, partly responsible for the French Wars of Religion.The Guises were Catholic, and Henry Guise wanted to end growing Calvinist influence...
which, as the Valois kings approached extinction and the Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
s aggrandized in defense of Protestantism, cast ambitious eyes upon the throne itself, hoping to occupy it but determined to dominate it. So great was their pride that François, Duke of Guise, although merely a subject, dared to openly court Margaret of Valois, the daughter of Henri II
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
. He was obliged to hastily wed a princesse étrangère, Catherine of Cleves
Catherine of Cleves
Catherine de Clèves was the wife of Henry, Duke of Guise, and matriarch of the numerous and influential House of Guise. By marriage she was Duchess of Guise from 1570 to 1588, and Dowager Duchess of Guise thereafter...
, to avoid bodily harm from her offended brothers (each of whom eventually succeeded to the crown as, respectively, Francis II
Francis II of France
Francis II was aged 15 when he succeeded to the throne of France after the accidental death of his father, King Henry II, in 1559. He reigned for 18 months before he died in December 1560...
, Charles IX
Charles IX of France
Charles IX was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. His reign was dominated by the Wars of Religion. He is best known as king at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Childhood:...
, Henry III
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
). After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots , during the French Wars of Religion...
the Guises, triumphant in the kingdom, proved overbearing toward the king, driving Henry III to have the duke assassinated in his presence.
The status of foreign prince was not automatic: it required the king's acknowledgement and authorization of each of the privileges associated with the status. Some individuals and families claimed entitlement to the rank but never received it. Most infamous among these was Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy , was one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history, rising to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna. Born in Paris to aristocratic Italian parents, Eugene grew up around the French court of King Louis XIV...
, whose cold reception at the court of his mother's family drove him into the arms of the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
, where he became the martial
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...
scourge of France for a generation.
Some of France's leading ducal families, denied the rank of prince, simply usurped the title. Often it was claimed on behalf of their eldest sons, subtly reminding the court that the princely title was subordinate — at least in the law — to that of peer
Peerage of France
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 in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...
, while minimising the risk that the princely title would be challenged or forbidden. Typical were the ducs de La Rochefoucauld
La Rochefoucauld
La Rochefoucauld can refer to:People:* Antoine de La Rochefoucauld* Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld , 19th century Rosicrucian* François de La Rochefoucauld , French author...
. Their claim to descend from the sovereign duke Guillaume IV of Guyenne
William IV of Aquitaine
William IV , called Fierebras or Fierebrace , was the Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from 963 to his retirement in 990.William's father, William III, abdicated to the abbey of Saint-Cyprien in Poitiers and left the government to...
and their inter-marriages with the sovereign dukes of Mirandola failed to procure for them designation as foreign princes. Yet the ducal heir was known as the "prince de Marcillac", although no such principality ever existed, within or without France.
Titles
Most foreign princes did not initially use "prince" as a title. Since the families who held that rank were famous and few in the ancien régime, a title carried less distinction than the family surname. Thus noble titles, even chevalierKnight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
, were commonly and indifferently borne by foreign princes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries without any implication that their precedence was indicated or governed by the rank of the title: for instance, the title vicomte de Turenne, made famous by the renowned French marshal, merely reflected family tradition, but he ranked as a prince étranger, being a cadet of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, which reigned over the mini-duchy of Bouillon
Bouillon
Bouillon is a municipality in Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Luxembourg Province.The municipality, which covers 149.09 km², had 5,477 inhabitants, giving a population density of 36.7 inhabitants per km².- History :...
until the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
In the eighteenth century, as dukes and lesser noblemen arrogated to themselves the title "prince de X", more of the foreign princes began to do likewise. Like the princes du sang (e.g. Condé
Prince of Condé
The Most Serene House of Condé is a historical French house, a noble lineage of descent from a single ancestor...
, La Roche-sur-Yon) it was always one of their prerogatives to unilaterally assume a princely titre de courtoisie
Courtesy title
A courtesy title is a form of address in systems of nobility used for children, former wives and other close relatives of a peer. These styles are used 'by courtesy' in the sense that the relatives do not themselves hold substantive titles...
attached to the name of a seigneurie
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
, e.g., prince de Joinville (Guise), prince de Soubise (Rohan), prince de Talmond (La Trémoïlle), even when the eponymous property was no longer held by the family. These empty titles were passed down within families as if they were hereditary peerages.
Moreover, some noble titles of prince conferred on Frenchmen by the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, the Papacy, and Spain were eventually accepted at the French court (e.g., Prince de Broglie, Princesse des Ursins
Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des Ursins
Marie Anne de La Trémoille, princesse des Ursins , lady of the Spanish court, was the daughter of the duc de Noirmoutier and his wife Renée Julie Aubri...
, Prince de Rache) became more common in the eighteenth century. But they carried no official rank, and their social status was not equal to that of either peers or foreign princes.
Unsurprisingly, foreign princes began adopting a custom increasingly common outside of France; prefixing their Christian names with "le prince". The genealogist par excellence of the French nobility, Père Anselme
Père Anselme
Père Anselme was a French genealogist.He was born in Paris in 1625. As a layman his name was Pierre Guibours...
, initially deprecated such neologistic practice with insertion of a "dit" ("styled") in his biographical entries, but after the reign of Louis XIV he records the usage among foreign princes without qualification.
Privileges
Foreign princes were entitled to the style "haut et puissant prince" ("high and mighty Prince") in French etiquette, were called "cousin" by the king, and claimed the right to be addressed as votre altesseHighness
Highness, often used with a possessive adjective , is an attribute referring to the rank of the dynasty in an address...
(Your Highness).
Although Saint-Simon and other peers were loathe to concede these prerogatives to the princes étrangers, they were even more jealous of two other privileges, the so-called pour ("for") and the tabouret ("stool"). The former referred to the rooms assigned at the palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
to allow members of the royal dynasty, high-ranking officers of the royal household, senior peers and favored courtiers the honor of living under the same roof as the king. These rooms were neither well-appointed nor well-situated relative to those of the royal family, usually being small and remote. Nonetheless, les pours distinguished the court's inner circle from its hangers-on.
The tabouret was even more highly valued. It consisted of the right to sit on a stool
Stool (chair)
A stool is one of the earliest forms of seat furniture. It consists of a single seat, without back or arms rests, on a base of either three or four legs. A stool is distinguished from chairs by their lack of arms and a back...
or ployant (folding seat), in the presence of the king or queen. Whereas the queen had her throne, the filles de France and petite-filles their armchairs, and princesses du sang cushioned seats with hard backs, duchesses whose husbands were peers sat, gowned and bejewelled, in a semicircle around the queen and lesser royalties, on low, unsteady stools without any back support — and reckoned themselves fortunate among the women of France.
Whereas the wife of a duke-and-peer could use a ployant, other duchesses, domestic or foreign, lacked the prerogative. But not only could the wife of any prince étranger claim a tabouret, but so could his daughters and sisters. This extended privilege was based on the fact that a peer was an officer of the Parlement of Paris, while the rank held by a prince derived from a dignity rooted in his blood rather than in his function. Thus a duchess-peeress shares in her husband's de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
rank as an official
Official
An official is someone who holds an office in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority .A government official or functionary is an official who is involved in public...
, but that rank is extended to no other of his family. Yet all descendants in the legitimate male-line of a prince share his blood, and thus his status, as does his wife and the wives of his patrilineal
Patrilineality
Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....
kinsmen.
Further reading
- François Velde, a chapter on princes etrangeres http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frprince.htm at Heraldics
- Jean-Pierre Labatut, Les ducs et pairs de France au XVIIe siècle, (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1972), pp. 351–71