The Courtenay Royal & Noble Lineage

1. Imperial Titles:

English	Emperor, Empress
French	Empereur, Imperatrice

"Emperor" comes from the Latin imperator, roughly "commander", a title which ancient Roman armies "spontaneously" hailed a victorious general by; this entitled the general to a triumph (a sort of ancient Tournament of Roses Parade and Bowl Game). It was one of the titles of the Roman Emperor.

Sire Phillipe de Courtenay of France was given the title Emperor of Constantinople and a separate coat of arms, when he conquered the Turkish Empire during the Crusades.

2. Ruling Titles:

English	King, Queen
French	Roi, Reine

Principle Royal Families

Plantagenet

The Plantagenets were the royal ruling family, for many generations, over both England and France. The English Courtenay family intermarried several times with the Royal Plantagenet Family and the French de Courtenay Family, including:

· Princess Catherine Plantagenet, daughter of King Edward IV, niece of King Richard III, and sister of King Henry (Tudor) VII’s wife,

· Eleanor de Spenser, granddaughter of King Edward I,

· Elizabeth Plantagenet, and

· Peter I de Courtenay, a cousin, who was Prince of France.

The Plantagenet family, rule in England alone, ran for 331 years, and included:

• King Henry II, 1154 A.D. – 1189 A.D.,
• King Richard I the Lionhearted or “The Black Prince”,

who ruled during the time of the fabled Robin Hood,

• King John,
• King Henry III,
• King Edward I,
• King Edward II,
• King Edward III,
• King Richard II, Duke of York,
• King Henry IV, Duke of Lancaster,
• King Henry V, Duke of Lancaster,
• King Henry VI, Duke of Lancaster,

The Courtenay Royal & Noble Lineage

2. Ruling Titles (Cont’d.):

Principle Royal Families (Cont’d.)

Plantagenet (Cont’d.)

• King Edward IV, Duke of York,
• King Edward V, Duke of York, and through
• King Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, Constable and Admiral of England, and Lord of the North,

until 1485 A.D.

King Richard I led the 3^rd Crusade in 1190. King John led the 4^th Crusade in 1202, and King Henry III led the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th Crusades, in 1217, 1228, 1248, and 1279.

The Houses of York and Lancaster were also considered part of the Plantagenet, known also as Angevin, rule.

Knights of the Royal Order of the Garter

King Edward (Plantagenet) III of England, during a time when England went on to conquer over half of France, established the Knights of the Royal Order of the Garter in 1348 A.D., to be the highest possible honor for supporters in his attempt to capture the throne of France.

Sir Hugh Courtenay was a co-founder of the Order of the Garter, and one of its first Knights.

The King set very strict limits on membership in the Order of the Garter, to create his highest honor. First, members were limited to 26 in number. Further, members had to be selected and voted on from the ranks of those who were royalty or nobility, many of them already Knights of the Realm and seasoned in war and affairs of leadership. Finally, two of the 26 members were to be the reigning King and the Prince of Wales, next in line for the throne.

The medal awarded the elite group of Knighthood is called the Lesser George of the Order of the Garter.

The motto inscribed on the medal is “Honi soit qui mal y pense”. Translated, it reads “Shamed be he who thinks bad of it”.

The efforts of the Hundred Years War to impose rule upon France, begun by King Edward III, came to a climax nearly 100 years later. On May 29, 1431, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc) was executed, and the ten reigning King of England, Henry (Tudor) VI, was taken to Paris to be crowned King of France. During the next 22 years, English control of France diminished, and the Hundred Years War ended in 1453. Jeanne d’Arc had helped Charles VII to his throne by her efforts.

The Courtenay Royal & Noble Lineage

3. Prince, Grand Duke, Margrave, Count-Palatine, and Landgrave:

1. Prince and Princess

English	Prince, Princess
French	Prince, Princesse

2. Grand Duke

English	Grand Duke, Grand Duchess
French	Grand Duc, Grande Duchesse

This is a ruling (or formerly ruling) title unless it refers to the children of a Russian tsar. A sovereign grand duke or grand duchess was often a royal highness (as with Luxembourg). In German usage, you will also encounter the style of "Grand-Ducal Highness".

It is difficult to decide if a Grand Duke outranks a Prince. One has to know the history of the title.

3. Margrave

"Margrave" and "margravine" are the English words for "Markgraf" and "Markgräfin". As a title, it is etymologically equivalent to a Marquess (see below), but as there were ruling margraves in what is now Germany, such a Markgraf was superior.

4. Count-Palatine

"Palatine" refers to extraordinary powers granted to a noble. The English word "palatine" means a region under the authority of a noble where the king's writ was suspended. While the noble owed allegience to the king (or Holy Roman Emperor), the holder of a palatine had absolute authority, including the right to grant titles of nobility, create knights, raise armies, coin money -- i.e., powers normally reserved to a sovereign. There were palatinates in British history, in both England and in Ireland, and could be given to either lords temporal or spiritual. There was a case of a "bishop-palatine"; Louis Epstein reports "the English Lords Bishop of Durham used to rule a 'county palatine'".

5. Landgrave

As with "margravine", "landgrave" and "landgravine" are another pair of German titles that have achieved their own regular word in English. It corresponds roughly to a count or earl, but in the case of Hesse-Homburg, it was a ruling title. The German words are Landgraf and Landgräfin.

The Courtenay Royal & Noble Lineage

4. Nobility:

1. Dukes

English	Duke, Duchess
French	Duc, Duchesse

Related Terms: duchy, dukedom, ducal.

The Latin dux was a military title that might roughly translate to "field marshal". The historical kernel of in the stories of King Arthur probably refers to a dux bellorum in charge of the forces holding off the barbarian onslaught in early post-Roman Britain.

The English kings introduced the French ducal structure into the British system, and it was initially a mostly royal title (as all new creations during this century have been). In France especially after 1600, however, as well as in Britain, it has evolved into a mostly non-royal title.

The idea that a duke is a royal title, however, is strong in Germany, perhaps stronger than it ever was in Britain, where all the children of the head of some ruling houses are automatically a Herzog or Herzogin, much as imperial offspring were archdukes or archduchesses.

A duchy (or grand duchy) is the territory ruled by a duke (or grand duke) or the lands (and/or incomes) specifically attached to the ducal title. A dukedom is the title itself. In the UK, there are properly only two duchies, those of Lancaster and Cornwall; these are essentially corporations holding properties that provide income for the Queen (who is "Duke" of Lancaster), and the Prince of Wales (who is also the Duke of Cornwall); as only these two dukedoms carry such special "attachments" with the title, duchies are thus a royal preserve.

"Duke" is normally a very exalted title; however, when equating the dignity of some dukes, some insight is needed. For example, Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies created dukes in Naples almost by the gross, and these titles cannot be considered equal to dukes in the British or other continental systems.

The Courtenay Royal & Noble Lineage

4. Nobility (Cont’d.):

2. Marquess

English	Marquess, Marchioness
French	Marquis, Marquise

Related Terms: marquessate, margravate.

This title glosses to "march lord", i.e. a noble in charge of the marches (the border regions) of a realm in distinction to other lords in more-settled lands. These were essentially warlords with broad powers and in this context, may be thought of as a "palatine" title. In earlier times, it was a rare title; it was later revived as a grade between count and duke.

As a senior title (about two-thirds of British dukes are also marquesses), it is not that common the United Kingdom, at least when compared to other countries (especially France where "petit marquis" was a term of derision).

3. Earl and Count

English	Earl, Countess
French	Comte, Comtesse

Related Terms: earldom, comital, countly.

"Earl" is related to Old Norse "jarl", and is equivalent to "count", which itself comes from the Latin comes. This in turn is related to the English word "county", which pretty much explains what a count was: the principal figure of the county. In Roman times, the comes was a courtier, an Imperial official, and actually outranked a dux (duke).

William I of England regarded the Anglo-Saxon "earl" as a synonym for "count", and while this was not correct, it was a practical equivalency. Old English lacked a feminine and thus the French term was adopted for an earl's wife as well as for women who hold earldoms in their own right.

The German word "graf" seems etymologically related to the English "reeve", which comes from the Old English "gerefe". A reeve is an important appointed official, as with the "shire reeve", i.e., the "sheriff". Some will maintain that a British earl outranks any continental count. Compared to some other systems, especially those that incorporated the results of the often slapdash practices of older systems (e.g., Italy), there are proportionally fewer British earls than counts.

The Courtenay Royal & Noble Lineage

4. Nobility (Cont’d.):

4. Viscount

English	Viscount, Viscountess
French	Vicomte, Vicomtesse

Related Terms: viscountcy or viscounty.

This title is mostly confined to the United Kingdom and France, though it appears rarely in Italy and elsewhere.

This is the leftover title, what the king bestowed on someone who was not important enough to merit being made a count. It's a rather late innovation. It originated in France, as the count's deputy, i.e, the "vice-count".

5. Baron

English	Baron, Baroness
French	Baron, Baronne

Related Terms: barony, baronial, baronage.

Barons were originally (in Britain) those who held their lands directly from the king. Not all British nobles have baronies and many viscounts, for example, do not. (--Louis Epstein) The majority of the nobility in Britain are just plain barons. In the UK, life peers are always barons or baronesses (as with Baroness Thatcher).

Once, a baron was an important noble, especially before the Renaissance. It was the barons who brought King John to heel at Runnymede, and "robber-baron" has entered English as the term for one of the lords who collected "tolls" from Rhine river-traffic. In olden times, when there was little differentiation in degree or rank between neighboring nobles, "baron" could signify any noble, large or small, a meaning with some currency today on the continent, roughly equivalent in meaning to "peer" or "lord" in the UK.