Is it a kind of princess?
2007-12-26 08:52:55 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
A friend of mine told me that means female Dolphin, the big fish. I think is more than that.
2007-12-26 09:24:26 · update #1
In feudal France land was divided between titled individuals who in return owed loyalty to the king, usually in the form of armed service.These knights and nobles when dressed in armour looked very similar and therefore they used symbols on their shields in order to identify themselves. The Count of Vienne had a dolphin (dauphin in french, on his). This symbol along with the title was handed down father to son. These nobles thus acquired the nickname Dauphin de Viennois.
However one of the Counts of Vienne eventually sold his right to the title to the king of France (Phillipe VI), on condition that the Kings son carried on the tradition, so from then on (until the french revolution) the kings oldest son was the Dauphin
In french the feminine form of dauphin is dauphine, so the word Dauphine can clearly stand for the wife of the heir apparent
Dauphiné (note the accent) actually means the area (supposedly) governed by the holder of the title, however historically the relationship between the two was quite complex
2007-12-26 22:00:18 · answer #1 · answered by Skiərkæ 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Exactly. When France was a monarchy, King's oldest son was called the Dauphin (equivalent to Prince of Wales in the U. K.), and his wife was the Dauphine--simply the feminine equivalent of the title. A woman could not have been the Dauphine in her own right, because French law forbade the crown to pass to or through a woman, so that if a king had daughters but no sons, his heir would be his brother, his brother's son, his father's brother--but definitely man with the same Y-chromosome.
2007-12-26 16:59:59 · answer #2 · answered by aida 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
When France had a monarchy, the eldest son of the king of France and the direct heir to the throne was called the Dauphin. He was the crown prince of France and his wife was called the Dauphine, so she was sort of a princess.
2007-12-26 17:00:40 · answer #3 · answered by Lady Ivy 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
She was the wife of the Dauphin who in turn was the heir to the French throne, and called after the French region of Dauphine (pronounced Doefineay).
2007-12-26 17:01:08 · answer #4 · answered by Paranormal I 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Male form is Dauphin, I think. Refers to the oldest boy in the royal family. The female form would refer to the oldest girl if she had no brothers. The Heir Apparent.
2007-12-26 16:58:22 · answer #5 · answered by loryntoo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The french kings heir
2007-12-26 17:45:59 · answer #6 · answered by smiling 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes it is
its like dolphin
2007-12-26 16:58:26 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋