List of French marquesses

This is a list of French marquesses (French: marquisats de France) of the Ancien Régime, created by letters patent granted by a sovereign and, for the most part, seated on a fief.

Patents differ from simple patents (such as that of the Marquise de Pompadour) and other titles of honor, which are purely formal, most often lifelong, do not need to be verified or registered, and which, therefore, cannot be imposed on the parties concerned.

Some fiefs having been erected several times for various families, these confirmations can receive a serial number.

The papal nobility was only admitted before the Revolution, the Popes being then sovereigns of the Comtat Venaissin and Avignon: they would have created 26 hereditary marquis titles on their lands located in France.

At the end of the Ancien Régime, a large number of noble families - or so-called noble families - with a certain social standing, bore a courtesy title of count or marquis, unduly taken up or invented.