Foreign Prince - Terminology

Terminology

In medieval Europe, a nobleman 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, dukes. 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:

1. those domiciled in France but recognized by the current king as junior members of dynasties that reigned abroad (e.g., the Guise cadets of the House of Lorraine, the Nevers cadets of Mantua's House of Gonzaga, the Nemours cadets of the Dukes of Savoy, etc.) Above them were actual deposed rulers and their consorts (e.g. King James II of England, Queen Christina of Sweden, Suzanne-Henriette, Duchess of Mantua, etc.), who were usually accorded full protocolar courtesies at court, for as long as they remained welcome in France.
2. rulers of petty principalities who habitually sojourned at the French court (e.g. Princes of Monaco, Dukes of Bouillon, etc.)
3. French nobles who claimed membership in a formerly sovereign dynasty, either in the male-line (e.g. Rohan) or who pretended to a foreign throne as heirs in the female-line (e.g. La Trémoille).