Gradually, the women at Remiremont stopped following the Benedictine rule and became secular canonesses, who did not take perpetual vows, and were free to resign their prebendary and marry.

Enriched by the Dukes of Lorraine, the kings of France and the Holy Roman Emperors, the canonesses of Remiremont attained great power.

As prebends, they each received a share of the abbey's considerable income to dispose of as they wished, and could leave to visit family, sometimes for months at a time.

On Whit Monday the neighboring parishes paid homage to the collegiate chapter in a ceremony called the Kyriolés (canticles in the vernacular).

On their accession, the Dukes of Lorraine became de facto suzerains of the abbey and had to come to Remiremont to swear to continue their protection.

Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, took advantage of the absence of Emperor Maximilian II, away campaigning in Hungary, to remove the escutcheons by force and establish his de facto sovereignty.

They were obliged to live at the abbey three months in the year in gentile houses built in a large enclosure around the church.

The last abbess, under the Ancien Régime from 1786 until 1790, was Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon, the daughter of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé.