Dauphin of France ( /ˈdɔːfɪn/ , also UK: /dɔːˈfɪn,ˈdoʊfæ̃/ US: /ˈdoʊfɪn,doʊˈfæ̃/ ; French : Dauphin de France [dofɛ̃ də fʁɑ̃s] ( 
listen )), originally Dauphin of Viennois (Dauphin de Viennois), was the title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France from 1350 to 1791 and 1824 to 1830. [1] The word dauphin is French for dolphin. At first, the heirs were granted the County of Viennois (Dauphiné) to rule, but eventually only the title was granted.
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Guigues IV, Count of Vienne, had a dolphin on his coat of arms and was nicknamed le Dauphin. The title of Dauphin de Viennois descended in his family until 1349, when Humbert II sold his seigneury, called the Dauphiné, to King Philippe VI on condition that the heir of France assume the title of le Dauphin. The wife of the Dauphin was known as la Dauphine.
The first French prince called le Dauphin was Charles the Wise, later to become Charles V of France. The title was roughly equivalent to the English (thence British) Prince of Wales , the Scottish Duke of Rothesay , the Portuguese Prince of Brazil , and the Spanish Prince of Asturias . The official style of a Dauphin of France, prior to 1461, was par la grâce de Dieu, dauphin de Viennois, comte de Valentinois et de Diois ("By the Grace of God, Dauphin of Viennois, Count of Valentinois and of Diois"). A Dauphin of France united the coat of arms of the Dauphiné, which featured dolphins, with the French fleurs-de-lis, and might, where appropriate, further unite that with other arms (e.g. Francis, son of Francis I, was ruling Duke of Brittany, so united the arms of that province with the typical arms of a Dauphin; Francis II, while Dauphin, was also King of Scots by marriage to Mary I, and added the arms of the Kingdom of Scotland to those of the Dauphin).
Originally the Dauphin was personally responsible for the rule of the Dauphiné, which was legally part of the Holy Roman Empire, and which the Emperors, in giving the rule of the province to the French heirs, had stipulated must never be united with France. Because of this, the Dauphiné suffered from anarchy in the 14th and 15th centuries, since the Dauphins were frequently minors or concerned with other matters.
During his period as Dauphin, Louis, son of Charles VII, defied his father by remaining in the province longer than the king permitted and by engaging in personal politics more beneficial to the Dauphiné than to France. For example, he married Charlotte of Savoy against his father's wishes. Savoy was a traditional ally of the Dauphiné, and Louis wished to reaffirm that alliance to stamp out rebels and robbers in the province. Louis was driven out of the Dauphiné by Charles VII's soldiers in 1456, leaving the region to fall back into disorder. After his succession as Louis XI of France in 1461, Louis united the Dauphiné with France, bringing it under royal control.
The title was automatically conferred upon the next heir apparent to the throne in the direct line upon birth, accession of the parent to the throne or death of the previous Dauphin, unlike the British title Prince of Wales, which has always been in the gift of the monarch (traditionally conferred upon the heir's 21st birthday).
The sons of the King of France held the style and rank of fils de France (son of France), while male-line grandsons were given the style and rank of petits-enfants de France (Grandson of France). The sons and grandsons of the Dauphin ranked higher than their cousins, being treated as the king's children and grandchildren respectively. The sons of the Dauphin, though grandsons of the king, were ranked as Sons of France, and the grandsons of the Dauphin ranked as Grandsons of France; other great-grandsons of the king ranked merely as princes of the blood.
The title was abolished by the Constitution of 1791, which made France a constitutional monarchy. Under the constitution the heir-apparent to the throne (Dauphin Louis-Charles at that time) was restyled Prince Royal (a Prince of the Blood retitled prince français), taking effect from the inception of the Legislative Assembly on 1 October 1791. The title was restored in potentia under the Bourbon Restoration of Louis XVIII, but there would not be another Dauphin until after his death. With the accession of his brother Charles X, Charles' son and heir Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême automatically became Dauphin.
With the removal of the Bourbons the title fell into disuse, the heirs of Louis-Philippe being titled Prince Royal. After the death of Henri, comte de Chambord, Carlos, Duke of Madrid, the heir of the legitimist claimant, Juan, Count of Montizón, made use of the title in pretense, as have the Spanish legitimist claimants since.
| # | Name as Dauphin | Heir of | Birth | Became Dauphin | Ceased to be Dauphin | Death | Other titles before or while Dauphin | Name as King | Dauphine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Charles | John II | 21 January 1338 | 22 August 1350 | 8 April 1364 Became King | 16 September 1380 | Duke of Normandy | Charles V | Joanna of Bourbon |
| 2 |  Charles | Charles V | 3 December 1368 | [ data unknown/missing ] | 16 September 1380 Became King | 21 October 1422 | — | Charles VI | – |
| 3 | Charles | Charles VI | 26 September 1386 | 28 December 1386 | — | – | – | ||
| 4 |  Charles | 6 February 1392 | 13 January 1401 | Duke of Guyenne | – | – | |||
| 5 |  Louis | 22 January 1397 | 13 January 1401 | 18 December 1415 | Duke of Guyenne | – | Margaret of Burgundy | ||
| 6 |  John | 31 August 1398 | 18 December 1415 | 5 April 1417 | Duke of Touraine | – | Jacqueline of Hainaut | ||
| 7 |  Charles | 22 February 1403 | 5 April 1417 | 21 October 1422 Became King | 22 July 1461 | Count of Ponthieu | Charles VII | – | |
| 8 |  Louis | Charles VII | 3 July 1423 | 22 July 1461 Became King | 30 August 1483 | — | Louis XI | Margaret of Scotland; Charlotte of Savoy | |
| 9 | François | Louis XI | 4 December 1466 | — | – | – | |||
| 10 |  Charles | 30 June 1470 | 30 August 1483 Became King | 7 April 1498 | — | Charles VIII | – | ||
| 11 |  Charles-Orlando | Charles VIII | 11 October 1492 | 16 December 1495 | — | – | – | ||
| 12 |  Charles | 8 September 1496 | 2 October 1496 | — | – | – | |||
| 13 | François | July 1497 | — | – | – | ||||
| 14 |  François | Francis I | 28 February 1518 | 10 August 1536 | Duke of Brittany | – | – | ||
| 15 |  Henry | 31 March 1519 | 10 August 1536 | 31 March 1547 Became King | 10 July 1559 | Duke of Orléans, Duke of Brittany | Henry II | Catherine de' Medici | |
| 16 |  Francis | Henry II | 19 January 1544 | 31 March 1547 | 10 July 1559 Became King | 5 December 1560 | King-consort of Scotland | Francis II | Mary, Queen of Scots |
| 17 |  Louis | Henry IV | 27 September 1601 | 14 May 1610 Became King | 14 May 1643 | — | Louis XIII | – | |
| 18 |  Louis-Dieudonné | Louis XIII | 5 September 1638 | 14 May 1643 Became King | 1 September 1715 | — | Louis XIV | – | |
| 19 |  Louis, le Grand Dauphin | Louis XIV | 1 November 1661 | 14 April 1711 | — | – | Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria | ||
| 20 |  Louis, le Petit Dauphin | 16 August 1682 | 14 April 1711 | 18 February 1712 | Duke of Burgundy | – | Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy | ||
| 21 |  Louis | 8 January 1707 | 18 February 1712 | 8 March 1712 | Duke of Brittany | – | – | ||
| 22 |  Louis | 15 February 1710 | 8 March 1712 | 1 September 1715 Became King | 10 May 1774 | Duke of Anjou | Louis XV | – | |
| 23 |  Louis-Ferdinand [2] | Louis XV | 4 September 1729 | 20 December 1765 | — | – | Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain; Duchess Maria Josepha of Saxony | ||
| 24 |  Louis-Auguste | 23 August 1754 | 20 December 1765 | 10 May 1774 Became King | 21 January 1793 | Duke of Berry | Louis XVI | Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria | |
| 25 |  Louis-Joseph | Louis XVI | 22 October 1781 | 4 June 1789 | — | – | – | ||
| 26 |  Louis-Charles | 27 March 1785 | 4 June 1789 | 1 October 1791 Retitled as "Prince-royal" | 8 June 1795 | Duke of Normandy | Louis XVII | – | |
| 27 |  Louis-Antoine | Charles X | 6 August 1775 | 16 September 1824 | 2 August 1830 Became King | 3 June 1844 | Duke of Angoulême | Louis XIX | Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France |
In Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Huck encounters two odd characters who turn out to be professional con men. One of them claims that he should be treated with deference, since he is "really" an impoverished English duke, and the other, not to be outdone, reveals that he is "really" the Dauphin ("Looey the Seventeen, son of Looey the Sixteen and Marry Antonet").
Louis, Duke of Guyenne, the Dauphin of Viennois, is a character in Shakespeare's Henry V .
In Baronness Emma Orczy's Eldorado , the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues the Dauphin from prison and helps spirit him from France.
Alphonse Daudet wrote a short story called "The Death of the Dauphin", about a young Dauphin who wants to stop Death from approaching him.
The Dauphin is also mentioned in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian .
"The Dauphin" is a 1988 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation . As the titular character is female, the episode title gets the gender incorrect (the French female equivalent is "Dauphine").
Louis Philippe was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the last King and penultimate monarch of France.
The Dauphiné is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme, and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois.
Count of Paris was a title for the local magnate of the district around Paris in Carolingian times. After Hugh Capet was elected King of France in 987, the title merged into the crown and fell into disuse. However, it was later revived by the Orléanist pretenders to the French throne in an attempt to evoke the legacy of Capet and his dynasty.
The Legitimists are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848 which placed Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, head of the Orléans cadet branch of the Bourbon dynasty, on the throne until he too was dethroned and driven with his family into exile.
Duke of Orléans was a French royal title usually granted by the King of France to one of his close relatives, or otherwise inherited through the male line. First created in 1344 by King Philip VI for his younger son Philip, the title was recreated by King Charles VI for his younger brother Louis, who passed the title on to his son and then to his grandson, the latter becoming King Louis XII. The title was created and recreated six times in total, until 1661, when Louis XIV bestowed it upon his younger brother Philippe, who passed it on to his male descendants, who became known as the "Orléans branch" of the Bourbons.
Louis was Dauphin of France as the eldest son of King Louis XIV and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. He became known as the Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the Petit Dauphin. As he died before his father, he never became king. His grandson became Louis XV of France.
Duke of Berry or Duchess of Berry was a title in the Peerage of France that was created several times for junior members of the French royal family. It was frequently granted to women, either members of the royal family or married into it. The last official holder was Charles Ferdinand of Artois, son of Charles X. It is currently held as a courtesy title by Prince Alphonse de Bourbon, son of the Legitimist Pretender to the French Throne Louis Alphonse de Bourbon. The Berry region is now the departments of Cher, Indre and Vienne.
Fils de 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.
The 4th House of Orléans, sometimes called the House of Bourbon-Orléans to distinguish it, is the fourth holder of a surname previously used by several branches of the Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty's founder, Hugh Capet. The house was founded by Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger son of Louis XIII and younger brother of Louis XIV, the "Sun King".
Duke of Valentinois is a title of nobility, originally in the French peerage. It is currently one of the many hereditary titles claimed by the Prince of Monaco despite its extinction in French law in 1949. Though it originally indicated administrative control of the Duchy of Valentinois, based around the city of Valence, the duchy has since become part of France, making the title simply one of courtesy.
The County of Valentinois was a fiefdom within Dauphiné Viennois and was a part of the Holy Roman Empire from 1032 until the sixteenth century.
Charles of France, Duke of Berry, was a grandson of Louis XIV of France. Although he was only a grandson of Louis XIV, Berry held the rank of fils de France, rather than petit-fils de France, as the son of the Dauphin, heir apparent to the throne. The Duke of Berry was for seven years (1700–1707) heir presumptive to the throne of Spain, until his elder brother Philip V of Spain fathered a son in 1707.
Louis, Dauphin of France, or variations on this name, may refer to:
Marie Joséphine of Savoy was a Princess of France and Countess of Provence by marriage to the future King Louis XVIII of France. She was, in the opinion of Bourbon Royalist Legitimists, regarded as titular 'Queen of France' when her husband assumed the title of King in 1795 upon the death of his nephew, the titular King Louis XVII of France, until her death. In reality she never had this title, as she died before her husband actually became King in 1814.
The precise style of French Sovereigns varied over the years. Currently, there is no French sovereign; three distinct traditions exist, each claiming different forms of title.
The term House of France refers to the branch of the Capetian dynasty which provided the Kings of France following the election of Hugh Capet. The House of France consists of a number of branches and their sub-branches. Some of its branches have acceded to the Crown, while others remained cadets.
Monarchism in France is the advocacy of restoring the monarchy in France, which was abolished after the 1870 defeat by Prussia, arguably before that in 1848 with the establishment of the French Second Republic. The French monarchist movements are roughly divided today in three groups: the Legitimists for the royal House of Bourbon, the Orléanists for the cadet branch of the House of Orléans and the Bonapartists for the imperial House of Bonaparte.
Count of Diois is a title of nobility, originally in French peerage. It was created in 1350 inside Dauphine of Viennois Patrimony by Philip VI of France when Humbert II of Viennois sold his lands and titles to King Philip VI of France. All patrimony of Dauphine consisted in: Count of Albon, Grésivaudan, Briançonnais, Grenoble, Oisans, Briançon, Embrun and Gaph, Baron de La Tour du Pin, Dauphin of Viennois, count of Valentinois, and given to Cesar Borgia join to Duke of Valentinois by Louis XII of France.
