Fils de France
style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France
Fils de France (French pronunciation: [fis də fʁɑ̃s], 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 (French pronunciation: [fij də fʁɑ̃s], 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. The king's next younger brother, also a fils de France, was known simply as Monsieur, and his wife as Madame.
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).
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1348170. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1830 and 1848.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fils de France” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.