French Usage
In France, the rank of prince du sang was restricted to legitimate agnates of the Capetian dynasty who are not members of the immediate family of the king.
During the reign of the Direct Capetians, the agnates of the French king did not constitute a formal class as princes of the blood. From 987-1316, the French succession was undisputed, passing in direct line from father to eldest living son. The princes du sang gradually emerged as a class during the reign of the House of Valois, due to the recognition of agnatic primogeniture as the principle controlling the succession to the throne. Due to this principle, any agnate of the king, however distant his relationship with the monarch, is a potential successor to the crown. The rank of prince du sang was created in order to recognize this special status.
In theory, the princes of the blood included all members of the Capetian dynasty. In practice, it acknowledged only the agnatic descendants of Saint Louis IX: the Valois and the Bourbons. The first three Bourbon kings, for instance, refused to recognize the Courtenay branch as princes of the blood. The Courtenays were descended from King Louis VI, and had become impoverished minor nobles during the time of their petition. Whether this non-recognition would actually prevent the Courtenays from claiming the throne will never be known, for their line was extinguished before the end of the monarchy.
During the ancien régime, the quality of being a prince of the blood is deemed part of the fundamental laws of the kingdom, which meant that it is beyond legislation. Louis XIV had attempted, twice, to create princes of the blood by law. In the Treaty of Montmartre, Louis XIV made the non-Capetian House of Lorraine heirs to the throne in the event of the extinction of the House of Bourbon. In an edict of July 1714, he gave succession rights to his legitimized sons the Duke of Maine and Count of Toulouse. Louis XIV abandoned the attempt to make the House of Lorraine heirs after being advised against it, but he compelled the registration of the letters patent giving succession rights to his legitimized sons. It should be noted that the parlements of France, such as the Parlement de Paris, are unlike their counterparts in England. In France, a parlement is merely a judicial body that registers laws. Though they may refuse to register laws, the king could compel registration through a process known as lit de justice. The latter edict was revoked and annulled after the king's death. Princes of the blood cannot be made or unmade through law. As a chancellor of Louis XIV warned, a king could only make princes of the blood through their queens.
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