prince

prince, a European title of rank, usually denoting a person exercising complete or almost complete sovereignty or a member of a royal family, but in some cases used to designate high-ranking nobles.

France

Although lordly vassals might conventionally be referred to as “princes,” the title of prince was not official in France until the 15th century, when members of the royal house came to be distinguished as “princes of the blood” (princes du sang) with specified rights of precedence; in 1711 they were granted precedence absolutely.

In a few cases the king accorded or acknowledged the title without defining the status of a principality in relation to a duchy, a countship, or a marquisate. Such princely titles were often borne by the eldest sons of dukes.

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A Royal Vocabulary Quiz

Germany

From the 10th to the 12th century a new class of Fürsten, or princes, arose in Germany, consisting of the holders of well-defined territorial lordships in immediate dependence on the German king and on the Holy Roman Empire. An Estate of Princes of the Realm (Reichsfürstenstand) came into being from the 1180s and comprised dukes, counts palatine, margraves, landgraves, archbishops, bishops, certain abbots, and the masters of the military-religious orders. New admissions to this estate required not only the sovereigns’ bestowal of the title Fürst (lower than that of duke or landgrave) but also the consent of the existing princes. In the Reichstag, or Diet, the Kurfürsten, or electoral princes (more commonly, electors), eventually set themselves apart from the others, whose number grew considerably until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Only 10 princes were not mediatized by 1815—including Liechtenstein, which even survived World Wars I and II. The title of Fürst as bestowed by the Prussian monarchy in the 19th–20th century was simply honorific.

The German language uses the term Fürst for a prince with sovereign or quasi-sovereign rights or for the head of a princely family, but it may use Prinz for a junior member of a sovereign or princely house. Examples are Kronprinz, crown prince; Kurprinz, electoral prince, heir to an electorate; Erbprinz, hereditary prince, heir to a principality; Prinz von Preussen, heir presumptive to Prussia; and Prinz von Battenberg, for descendants of the grand ducal house of Hesse through a morganatic marriage.

Spain and Portugal

In Spain counts of Barcelona had been regarded as princes of Catalonia in the sense that they were the greatest feudatories of that country; and, when Count Ramón Berenguer IV became king-consort of Aragon in 1137, he styled himself Príncipe de Aragon instead of king. The sons of Spanish kings, meanwhile, had the style of infante; but the title of Príncipe de Asturias was created, in 1388, for the eldest son of John I of Castile, the future Henry III of Castile. On the union of the Castilian and Aragonese crowns, this title became that of the heir apparent to the whole Spanish monarchy; it long remained the only Spanish princely title. In 1795, however, the title Príncipe de la Paz was created for Manuel de Godoy, with higher rank than his duchy of La Alcudia; but it was abolished in 1808. Baldomero Espartero received the title Príncipe de Vergara in 1872 for his lifetime only. Outside Spain, on the other hand, the Spanish kings bestowed princely titles with extreme liberality.

In Portugal the heir apparent to the throne had the title of Prince Royal from the reign of King Edward (1433–38).

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Italy

In southern Italy the Lombard dukes of Benevento became practically sovereign princes after the Frankish annexation of the northern kingdom of Lombardy (774); successive partitions of their territory, from 847, created three principalities—Benevento, Salerno, and Capua. In the 11th century the latter two fell to the Normans, while Benevento became an exclave of the Papal States. Subsequently, princely titles became very numerous in southern Italy: the Spanish kings conceded at least 120 for Sicily and about as many for Naples. For Italy as a whole the aggregate was increased by Roman principalities created by the papacy and by principalities of the Holy Roman Empire in the north.

Great Britain

In Great Britain the word prince could always be used in a generally descriptive way for a monarch, duke, or other major peer with intrinsic judicial powers; but as a title of rank it was not used until 1301, when Edward I invested his son, the future Edward II, as Prince of Wales. (From Edward III’s time the king’s eldest son and heir was usually so invested.) Essentially, a prince originally was one who was sovereign in his or her territories, and the word is transgender—Mary, Queen of Scots, in her correspondence described herself as “a freeborn prince.”

Not until the accession of the German George I (1714), however, did it become settled practice for all the sovereign’s descendants in the male line (that is, his children and the children of his sons) to be styled prince or princess and royal highness; great-grandchildren in the male line were prince or princess and highness. Before that, in both England and Scotland, the children of the monarchs were styled as Lord Forename or Lady Forename. In 1917 George V limited the title of prince or princess to the sovereign’s children and the children of the sovereign’s sons; the only extension was for the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. The granting or withholding of a princely style and title remained, however, a matter of the sovereign’s will: Queen Elizabeth II’s consort, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was expressly created a prince of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1957.

Russia and Poland

In Russia and in Poland the title prince was accorded to descendants of sovereign or formerly sovereign dynasties, whether Russian, Tatar, Lithuanian, or Polish. (For grand princes, see grand duke.) Apart from this use, the title was granted as a high rank of nobility by the Russians from Peter the Great’s time (1682–1725).

In Poland 10 princely houses claimed descent from ancient dynasties; four more were created by the Holy Roman Empire and one was created by the Holy See, in addition to one created in 1808 by the Russians, but only two were created for ordinary nobles by the Polish crown (Poniatowski in 1764, Poninski in 1773).