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.
Read more about Prince Du Sang: French Usage, Styles, Monsieur Le Prince, Madame La Princesse, Monsieur Le Duc, Madame La Duchesse, Monsieur Le Comte, Madame La Comtesse, Madame La Princesse Douairière, Legitimised Royal Offspring, Orléans-Longueville, See Also, References
Famous quotes containing the words prince and/or sang:
“When the Prince of Wales [later King George IV] and the Duke of York went to visit their brother Prince William [later William IV] at Plymouth, and all three being very loose in their manners, and coarse in their language, Prince William said to his ship’s crew, “now I hope you see that I am not the greatest blackguard of my family.””
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?”
—Bible: Hebrew Job (l. XXXVIII, 7)