Princesse lointaine

The name comes from the play La Princesse Lointaine by Edmond Rostand (1895), and draws on medieval romances.

Amour de loin ("Love from long away") is a term used in romances and their study.

The term has been used subsequently to refer to women whose chief characteristic as love interests has been their unattainability.

told of men who had fallen in love with women whom they had never seen, merely on hearing their perfection described, but normally she was not so distant.

As the etiquette of courtly love became more complicated, the knight might wear the colors of his lady: where blue or black were sometimes the colors of faithfulness, green could be a sign of unfaithfulness.