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. A prince du sang or a princesse du sang had to be a legitimate member of the reigning dynasty (after 1589, the House of Bourbon). In some European monarchies, but especially in the kingdom of France, this appellation was a specific rank in its own right, of a more restricted use than other titles.
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The rank of prince du sang was restricted to legitimate agnatic descendants. Those who held this rank were usually styled by their main ducal peerage, but sometimes other titles were used, indicating a more precise status than prince du sang.
This was the style of the First Prince of the Blood (French: premier prince du sang), which normally belonged to the most senior (by primogeniture) male member of the royal dynasty who was not a brother, son, or male-line grandson of a king of France or of a dauphin (these dynasts were members of the "royal family" (famille du roi) and enjoyed higher rank and styles than the princes du sang). Although the eldest son of a younger son of a king or dauphin (i.e., a petit-fils de France) could inherit the title and its benefits by right, the title was only actually borne by a dynast who was not also a royal petit-fils.[1] Use of the style premier prince was not governed by the dynast's relationship to the reigning monarch, but by whether he belonged to the famille du roi, even if he was only a distant cousin of the sovereign (as the regent Philippe II, Duke of Orléans was to Louis XV). Minor inconsistencies in use arose in 1785, when the rank ceased belonging for life to an incumbent (instead passing by right to any prince the moment he became the nearest dynast to the throne without belonging to the famille du roi), and one petit-fils de France (the duc d'Angoulême) who was, by right, premier prince may not have received the annuity which had previously gone with it.[2]
The rank carried with it various privileges, including the right to a household paid out of state revenues. The rank was held for life: the birth of a new, more senior prince who qualified for the position did not deprive the current holder of his use of the style. The Princes of Condé used the style of Monsieur le Prince for over a century (1589–1709). The right to use of the style passed to the House of Orléans in 1709; they, however, seldom if ever used it.
First Princes of the Blood, 1465-1830
House of Valois-Alençon
House of Bourbon-La Marche
House of Bourbon-Vendôme
This style was held by the wife of Monsieur le Prince. The duchesses/princesses that were entitled to use it were:
This style was used for the eldest son of the Prince de Condé. Originally, the eldest son was given the title of duc d'Enghien, but that changed in 1709 when the Condés lost the rank of premier prince. After that, the eldest son was given the title of Duke of Bourbon, and his eldest son (the eldest grandson of the Prince of Condé in the male line) was given the title of duc d'Enghien.
This style was used for the wife of Monsieur le Duc. The most famous holder of this honorific was:
Others included:
This address was used by the head of the most junior branch of the House of Bourbon, the comte de Soissons. The comtes de Soissons, like the Princes of Conti, descended from the Princes of Condé. The line started in 1566 when the Soissons title was given to Charles de Bourbon, the second son of Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, the first Prince of Condé.
The first Prince had three sons:
The Soissons title was acquired by the first Prince of Condé in 1557 and was held by his descendants for two more generations:
The 2nd Count of Soissons died without an heir, so the Soissons title passed to his younger sister, Marie de Bourbon, the wife of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, a member of the House of Savoy. She became known as Madame la comtesse de Soissons. On her death, the title passed first to her second son, Joseph-Emmanuel, Prince of Savoy (1631–1656), and then to her third son, Eugène-François, Prince of Savoy.
He married Olympia Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin. She was known as Madame la Comtesse de Soissons[3] like her mother-in-law. On his death, the title went to his eldest son, Louis-Thomas, Prince of Savoy, who was the older brother of the famous Austrian general, Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Soissons title became extinct upon the death of Eugène-Jean-François of Savoy-Carignano in 1734.
This style was used by the wife of Monsieur le Comte. The best example of this is Olympia Mancini.
In order to tell the wives of the various Princes of Conti apart after their deaths, the widows were given the name of Douairière or dowager and a number corresponding to when they lost their husband. After being widowed their full style would be Madame la Princesse de Conti 'number' Douairière. Between 1727 and 1732, there were three widowed Princesses de Conti. They were:
Legitimised children of the King of France, and of other males of his dynasty, took surnames according to the branch of the House of Capet to which their father belonged, e.g. Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine, was the elder son of Louis XIV by his mistress, Mme de Montespan.[4] After the legitimisation occurred, the child was given a title. Males were given titles from their father's lands and estates and females were given the style of Mademoiselle de X. Examples of this are (children of Louis XIV and Mme de Montespan):
Also the child would be referred to as Légitimé de Bourbon; such as Marie Anne légitimée de Bourbon, mademoiselle de Blois daughter of Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière. Her full brother was Louis de Bourbon, later given the title of comte de Vermandois.
The branch of the ducs de Longueville, extinct in 1672, bore the surname d'Orléans, as legitimised descendants of Jean, bâtard d'Orléans, the natural son of a Valois prince who held the appanage of Orléans before the Bourbons did.[5] Non-legitimised natural children of royalty took whatever surname the king permitted, which might or might not be that of the dynasty.
Children born out of wedlock to a French king or prince were never recognised as fils de France. However, if legitimised, the king might raise them to a rank just below or even equivalent to that of a prince du sang.[6]
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Parlements French nobility Taille Gabelle Seigneurial system |