View source for Courtesy title

{{Short description|Title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
[[File:Szlachta_polska_w_Gdansku_by_Wilhelm_August_Stryowski.jpg|thumb|''Polish szlachta in [[Gdańsk]]'', by [[Wilhelm August Stryowski]]]]
A '''courtesy title''' is a [[title]] that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of [[nobility]], the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. [[substantive title]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/courtesy-title|title=Courtesy Title|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=Collins|access-date=29 November 2016|archive-date=30 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130112418/http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/courtesy-title|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/courtesy_title|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925141950/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/courtesy_title|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 September 2016|title=Courtesy Title|work=OxfordDictionaries.com|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|access-date=29 November 2016}}</ref>

In some contexts, ''courtesy title'' is used to mean the more general concept of a [[title]] or [[honorific]] such as [[Mr.]], [[Mrs.]], [[Ms.]], [[Miss]], [[Madam]], [[Sir]] for those who not been awarded a knighthood or a baronetcy, as well as [[Doctor (title)|Dr.]] for physicians who have not actually achieved a doctorate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/comdor/editguide/style-matters/titles-people.html|title=ComDor Editorial Style Guide: Titles and Courtesy Titles|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|access-date=15 February 2013|archive-date=2 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102034214/http://web.mit.edu/comdor/editguide/style-matters/titles-people.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Europe ==
In Europe, including France, many titles are not substantive titles but remain ''titres de courtoisie'', and, as such,  are adopted unilaterally. When done by a genuine member of the ''[[Nobles of the Sword|noblesse d'épée]]'' the custom was tolerated in French society.  A common practice is ''title declension'', when [[Cadet (genealogy)|cadet]] males of noble families, especially landed aristocracy, may assume a lower courtesy title than that legally borne by the head of their family, even though lacking a titled ''[[Fief|seigneury]]'' themselves.<ref name="velde">{{cite web|last=Velde|first=François|publisher=Heraldica.org|url=http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/noblesse.htm#titles|title=Titles of Nobility|access-date=27 May 2011|archive-date=20 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520234025/http://heraldica.org/topics/france/noblesse.htm#titles|url-status=live}}</ref> For example, the eldest son of the ''Duke of Paris'' (substantive title) may be called ''Marquis de Paris'' (courtesy title) and younger sons ''Comte N. of Paris'', where N. stands for the first name. In the hereditary Napoleonic and Restoration peerage, declension was a legal right of younger sons, the derivative title being heritable by male primogeniture; [[Joseph Bonaparte|King Joseph Napoleon]] conferred the title "Prince" on his grandchildren in the male and female line.<ref name="velde" />

=== France (Ancien Régime) ===

==== Courtesy title as principal title ====
During the [[Ancien Régime]], the only substantive titles were [[Feudalism|feudal]], land-based and required a royal grant or royal recognition. In order to use the title of count, one had to own a ''[[seigneurie]]'' elevated to [[county]] and to comply with the remainder of the grant. These legal prescriptions, however, came to be consistently enforced only with respect to the title of duke (''duc''). Most titles were self-assumed courtesy titles, even those used at the [[royal court]] and in legal documents.

Clergymen before [[episcopal ordination]] used the title of ''abbé'', followed by the name of the principal title of their father. Members of the [[Sovereign Military Order of Malta]] used the title of ''chevalier'' in the same fashion.

==== Courtesy title used by sons and daughters ====
The heir apparent of a [[Hereditary title|titled nobleman]] used one of the lesser titles of his father as a courtesy title. In the 17th century, the heirs of the most powerful dukes were sometimes allowed to assume the title of prince. In the 18th century, a trend was for the heir to use the title of duke. It was achieved in one of three ways: if the head of family held two dukedoms, his heir could use the junior one; the head of family could resign his [[French peerage]] to his heir, who assumed a new title of duke while the father retained his ducal title; the king could confer a ''brevet de duc'', that is formally accord the non-hereditary style and precedence of a duke to the heir of a ducal title.

The younger sons of a noble titleholder used one of the family's lesser titles, but rarely one of duke or prince. Even in untitled families of the nobility, every son used a different [[territorial designation]], the so-called ''nom de terre''.

The daughters used the title of ''mademoiselle'', followed by the name of a manor owned by their father.  For example, [[Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier]] (known as ''La Grande Mademoiselle''), was the eldest daughter of [[Gaston, Duke of Orléans|Gaston d'Orléans]] (''[[Monsieur]]'') and his first wife [[Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier]]. Anne Marie Louise was officially known as ''Mademoiselle'' from the time of her birth.

=== United Kingdom ===
{{main|Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom}} The United Kingdom has a detailed system of courtesy titles and [[Style (manner of address)|styles]] by which the eldest son, [[Patrilineality|male-line]] grandson or great-grandson and [[Inheritance|heir]] of a [[Peerage|peer]] may use a [[subsidiary title]] of his ancestor even though it is the ancestor who holds the title substantively. By extension, the children not only of all peers but of those who bear derivative courtesy titles as male-line descendants of a substantive peer bear specific titles ([[Lord]]/[[Lady]]) or styles ([[The Honourable]]) by courtesy. Under [[United Kingdom law]], users of courtesy titles of nobility are held to be [[Commoner|commoners]], eligible for election to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] rather than being members of the [[House of Lords]].

== See also ==

* [[English honorifics]]
* [[Royal and noble title styles]]

== References ==
{{reflist}} {{Personal names}}