Princes of Orléans

This allowed that group of people the style of Royal Highness; this was from the reign of Louis XIII.

[1] After 1723, members of the House of Orléans took the style of Serene Highness and thus ranked as 'Princes of the Blood'.

At the French court, these princes outranked their cousins the Princes of Condé and the Princes of Conti, older branches of the House of Bourbon that ruled France from 1589 beginning with Henry IV until the end of the Revolution during the reign of Louis XVI.

The following male was the son of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the only surviving brother of Louis XIII.

Gaston was created the Duke of Orléans at his first marriage in 1626 to the heiress Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier; Marie died in childbirth[2] while Gaston again married again in 1632 to Marguerite de Lorraine.