Authentic titles are understood to mean titles erected by
letters patent of the Sovereign (the
King, or the
Emperor Napoleon III, or possibly a foreign sovereign whose lands have become French), registered or published with a court of justice or sovereign (parliament, court of auditors, etc.), or even subordinate, which gives them a legal and permanent status. These marquisates are in
bold. The particular case of unregistered letters is studied below. 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. Courtesy titles should not appear in the list. 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. Later titles, awarded by the Popes as foreign sovereigns, are excluded. 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. In the absence of an official census, there is no clear boundary between unfinished (unregistered) titles, those called courtesy titles, and the purely fanciful titles that flourish in all eras, including today. == List of marquesses ==