French royalty
Versailles palace occupants
French royalty refers to the monarchs, their families, and the aristocratic class that ruled France from medieval times through the Revolution of 1789 and intermittently afterward.
The term evokes the elaborate court culture of Versailles, the Bourbon dynasty, and figures like Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.
Something described as French royalty suggests opulence, refinement, or aristocratic bearing: She swept into the room like French royalty.
- absolute monarchyUnrestricted single-ruler government
- crown jewelsSovereign's ceremonial treasures
- Edict of NantesFrench Protestant tolerance proclamation
- fleur-de-lisStylized heraldic lily motif
- coronation ritualsFormal acts installing monarchs
Charles VII · Marie Antoinette · Eleanor of Aquitaine · Louis XIV · Catherine de' Medici · Hundred Years' War · divine right of kings · Versailles · Estates-General · Henry IV · coronation robes · ancien régime · dauphin · heraldry · throne rooms · Sun King · hereditary succession · ceremonial swords
French royaltythe common people
Ordinary members of society
the masses · serfs · sans-culottes · the proletariat · the poor
French, France, Frenchman, Frenchmen, Frenchwoman, Frenchwomen, Francophone, royal, royalty