thumb|right|250px|Heraldic [[Coronet#Kingdom of France|coronet of a fils de France]]

Fils de France (, 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 (, Daughter of France).

The children of the dauphin (a title reserved for the king's heir apparent, whether son, grandson or great-grandson of the monarch) were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

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). 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).

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.

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 for individuals (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 abound in reputable works of fils de France and fille de France being converted into other languages as "Prince/Princess of France" (however the same works, as cited, leave the Spanish equivalent, Infante/Infanta de España, untranslated). 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. However, in practice that formal honorific was less often used than the more traditionally French styles of Monsieur, Madame or Mademoiselle.

Between the death, in 1672, of Marie-Thérèse of France, the longest living daughter of Louis XIV and his Queen, 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).

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File:Isabel_de_Borbón,_from_Statens_Museum_for_Kunst,_by_Diego_Velázquez.jpg|Élisabeth of France

File:Portrait of Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy in 1633 by an anonymous artist.jpg|Princess Christine Marie of France and sister of Élisabeth. Madame Royal after her sister's marriage

Image:Louise Elisabeth of France Parma.jpg|Princess Marie Louise Élisabeth of France, known as Madame Première because she was the eldest daughter of King Louis XV

Image:Marie-Therese-Charlotte.jpg|Marie-Thérèse known as Madame Royale, eldest daughter of Louis XVI

</gallery>

Monsieur

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

  • Charles de Valois, Duke of Orléans (1550–1574), younger brother of Francis II (1544–1560), was known as Monsieur at the beginning of the reign of Francis II. He was King of France as Charles IX from 1560 to 1574;
  • Henri de Valois, Duke of Anjou (1551–1589), younger brother of Francis II and Charles IX, was known as Monsieur during the reign of Charles IX. He became King of France as Henry III from 1574 to 1589;
  • François de Valois, Duke of Anjou (1555–1584), youngest brother of Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, was known as Monsieur during the reign of Henry III;
  • Gaston of France, Duke of Orléans (1608–1660), younger brother of Louis XIII (1601–1643), was known as Monsieur during the reign of Louis XIII and was the first fils de France to assume the use of altesse royale abroad;

Mademoiselle

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

  • Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans (1627–1693), the eldest daughter of Gaston de France.
  • Marie Louise d'Orléans (1662–1689), the eldest daughter of King Louis XIV's younger brother, Philippe I, duc d'Orléans; later the wife of King Charles II of Spain.
  • Anne Marie d'Orléans (1669–1728) held the style (along with Madame Royale) after the marriage of her sister Marie Louise. She was the mother of Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy - later the Dauphine of France.
  • Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (1674–1744), youngest child of Philippe I, duc d'Orléans and his second wife. Married to the Duke of Lorraine, she was the paternal grandmother of Queen Marie Antoinette.
  • Louise Anne de Bourbon (1695–1758), fourth child of Louis III, Prince of Condé, was given the style of Mademoiselle as her cousin Louis d'Orléans had no daughter. When Louis's daughter Louise Marie was born in 1726, the title went to her. Louise Marie died in 1728 and the style reverted to Louise-Anne.
  • Louise Marie d'Orléans (1726–1728), only daughter of Louis d'Orléans and his wife Margravine Auguste Marie Johanna of Baden-Baden; died in childhood.
  • Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d'Orléans (1750–1822), daughter of the Duke of Orléans, was known as Mademoiselle from her birth. She was the sister of Philippe Égalité.
  • Sophie d'Artois (1776–1783) was the first daughter of Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy (1756–1805) and her husband, born Charles Philippe of France (1757–1836).

Younger daughters of Monsieur were named after one of his appanages, e.g. Mademoiselle de Chartres (1676–1744), the third surviving daughter of Philippe I, duc d'Orléans.

This custom was not confined to the royal family. Even untitled noble families followed the same habit.

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Image:Marie-Louise d'Orléans, reine d'Espagne.jpg|Mademoiselle, eldest daughter of le Petit Monsieur and the first Madame.

Image:Undated portrait of La Grande Mademoiselle (Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier) by a member of the School of Pierre Mignard.jpg|La Grande Mademoiselle, daughter of Gaston d'Orléans.

File:Elisabeth Charlotte de Orleans.jpg|Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans - Mademoiselle de Chartres then Mademoiselle after her sisters marriage, Anne Marie

File:Mademoiselle de Charolais (Louise Anne de Bourbon-, 1695-1758) by Alexandre François Caminade (Versailles).jpg|Louise Anne de Bourbon

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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

  • Monsieur
  • Madame
  • Prince du sang
  • Infante and its feminine form, infanta, for princes and princesses of Spain and Portugal

References