Fils de France

Fils de France (French pronunciation: [fis də fʁɑ̃s], Son of 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 (French pronunciation: [fij də fʁɑ̃s], Daughter of 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 grandchildren.[1]

Contents

Styles

The king, queen, queen dowager, enfants de France (Children of France) and petits-enfants de France (Grandchildren of France) constituted the famille du roi (Royal Family).[2] More remote legitimate, male-line descendants of France's kings held the designation and rank of princes du sang (Princes of the Blood) or, if legally recognised despite a bar sinister on the escutcheon, they were customarily deemed princes légitimés (Legitimated Princes).[3]

The dauphin, the heir to the French throne, was the most senior of the fils de France and was usually addressed as Monsieur le dauphin.[4] The king's next younger brother, also a fils de France, was known simply as Monsieur, and his wife as Madame.[5]

Daughters were referred to by their given name prefaced with the honorific Madame, while sons were referred to by their main peerage title (usually ducal), with the exception of the dauphin. The king's eldest daughter was known as Madame Royale until she married, whereupon the next eldest fille de France succeeded to that style.

Although the children of monarchs are often referred to in English as prince or princess, those terms were used as general descriptions for royalty in France but not as titular prefixes or direct forms of address (with the exception of Monsieur le Prince for the senior prince du sang) prior to the July Monarchy (1830–1848). Collectively, the legitimate children of the kings and dauphins were known as enfants de France ("Children of France"), while examples in reputable works of "Son of France" and "Daughter of France" being converted into other languages as Prince or Princess of France abound (whereas the same works, as cited, do not translate the Spanish equivalent, Infante/Infanta de España).[6][7][8][9] The illegitimate children of French kings, dauphins, and princes du sang were not entitled to any rights or styles per se, but often they were legitimised by their fathers. Even then, however, they were never elevated to the rank of fils de France, although they were sometimes accorded the lower rank and/or privileges associated with the princes du sang.

All enfants de France were entitled to the style of Royal Highness (altesse royale) from the reign of Louis XIII.[10] However in practice that formal honorific was less often used than the more traditionally French styles of Monsieur, Madame or Mademoiselle.[4][10] The styles of the royal family varied as follows:

Monsieur le Dauphin

This was a form of address for the dauphin. The dauphin de France (strictly-speaking the dauphin de Viennois), was the title used for the heir apparent to the throne of France from 1350 to 1791 and then from 1824 to 1830.

Monseigneur

This was another way of addressing Le Grand Dauphin, the only legitimate son of Louis XIV. After the death of le Grand Dauphin, the heir apparent to the throne of France for half a century, the style of Monseigneur was not used again to describe the dauphin himself. Rather, it became the style used by his sons as prefix to their peerages. During the lifetime of the Grand Dauphin, his three sons were addressed as:

Madame la Dauphine

This was the style of the dynastic wife of the dauphin. Some holders of the honorific were:

Madame Royale

This was the style of the eldest surviving daughter of the king. Those who held this honorific were:

Between the death, in 1672, of Marie-Thérèse of France, the longest living daughter of Louis XIV, and the birth, in 1727, of Louise Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of Louis XV, there were no legitimate daughters of a French king. Because of this, the style was occasionally used by the most senior unmarried princess at the French Court during that period. It was briefly used by the eldest niece of Louis XIV, Marie Louise d'Orléans (1662–1689), later known as just Mademoiselle. After her marriage to King Charles II of Spain (1661–1700), in 1679, the style was assumed briefly by her younger sister, Anne Marie d'Orléans (1669–1728), before she married Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (1666–1732).

Monsieur

This honorific belonged to the oldest living brother of the King. Among those who held this style were:

Madame

This was the style of the wife of Monsieur. Examples of this were:

Madame Première

King Louis XV and his wife, Marie Leszczyńska, had ten children, eight of whom were girls. To distinguish between these eight princesses, the daughters were known in birth order as Madame 'number', such as Madame Première, Madame Seconde, etc. This style was not a traditional right and was merely a way the court used to distinguish between the many daughters of Louis XV.

Petit-fils de France

This was the style and rank accorded to the sons of the fils de France, who were themselves the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. Females had the style petite-fille de France (Granddaughter of France). However, as surnames, they used their paternal main peerage title.

The petits-enfants de France, like the enfants de France, were entitled to be addressed as son altesse royale. Additionally, they traveled and lodged wherever the king did, could dine with him, and were entitled to an armchair in his presence.

Yet as hosts, they only offered armchairs to foreign monarchs—whom they addressed as Monseigneur rather than "Sire". Nor did they pay visits to foreign ambassadors, nor extend to them a hand in greeting. They only wore full mourning for deceased members of the royal family.

When entering a town, they were greeted with a presentation of arms by the royal garrison, by the firing of cannon, and by a delegation of local officials. However, only the sons and daughters of France were entitled to dine au grand couvert, that is, alone on a canopied dais amidst non-royal onlookers.[12]

Mademoiselle

This style was usually held by the eldest daughter of Monsieur and his wife, Madame.[13] Those who held this style were:

Younger daughters of Monsieur were named after one of his inherited fiefdoms. An example of this was Mademoiselle de Chartres (1676–1744), the third surviving daughter of Philippe I, duc d'Orléans.

Other families also did this such as the House of Bourbon-Condé with Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon being known as Mademoiselle d’Enghien (1676–1753). A Conti example is Louise Henriette of Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti.

La Grande Mademoiselle

After 1662, Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, who was originally called Mademoiselle as the eldest daughter of Gaston duc d'Orléans, became known as la Grande Mademoiselle at court, in order to distinguish her from her younger cousin, Marie Louise d'Orléans, now also called Mademoiselle, as the daughter of Anne's first cousin, the new Monsieur. After her death in 1693, the style of Grande Mademoiselle was not used again. Thus, this was not an official style but simply a means the court used to distinguish between the two princesses who held the style of Mademoiselle at the same time.

See also


Kingdom of France
Structure
Estates of the realm
Parlements
French nobility
Taille
Gabelle
Seigneurial system

References

  1. ^ Spanheim, Ézéchiel (1973). ed. Émile Bourgeois. ed (in French). Relation de la Cour de France. le Temps retrouvé. Paris: Mercure de France. p. 70. 
  2. ^ ib. Spanheim, Ézéchiel, pp. 81, 87, 313-314.
  3. ^ ib. Spanheim, Ézéchiel, pp. 100-105, 323-327.
  4. ^ a b c d Velde, François. "The French Royal Family: Titles and Customs — Forms of Address". Heraldica.org. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frroyal.htm#formal. Retrieved 2009-02-16. 
  5. ^ ib. Spanheim, Ézéchiel, p. 72.
  6. ^ The Descendants of Louis XIII. Daniel Willis. 1999, p.3
  7. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Band VIII. C.A. Starke. 1968, p. 200
  8. ^ Le Royaume d'Italie, vol. 1. C.E.D.R.E. 1992, p.131
  9. ^ L'Allemagne Dynastique, tome V. Michel Huberty. 1988, p. 572
  10. ^ a b c Velde, François. "The French Royal Family: Titles and Customs — Formal Styles". Heraldica.org. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frroyal.htm#formal. Retrieved 2009-02-16. 
  11. ^ Nagel, Susan, Marie-Thérèse, Child of Terror, Bloomsbury USA, 2008, p.277, ISBN 9781596910577.
  12. ^ ib. Spanheim, Ézéchiel, pp. 87, 313-314.
  13. ^ ib. Spanheim, Ézéchiel, pp.76, 80.