Reginald de Courtenay's daughter, Elizabeth, was given in marriage, together with his forfeited French lands, by the French
Capetian King
Louis VII with whom he had quarreled, to his youngest brother Peter of France (d.1183), henceforth known as
Peter I of Courtenay. Peter and Elizabeth's descendants were members of the
Capetian House of Courtenay, a
cadet branch of the
House of Capet, the French royal house. Their descendants acquired through marriage the
County of Namur and the
Latin Empire of
Constantinople. This branch became extinct in the male line in 1733, with the name Courtenay passing on to the Princely
House of Bauffremont. Notable members of the Bauffremonts became
Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, Imperial Count by
Napoleon Bonaparte and Duke by
Louis XVIII.
Claim to French royal status The
House of Bourbon, which acquired the French throne with the accession of
Henry IV of France in 1589, was another cadet branch of the
Capetian dynasty. Under the
Salic law, males descended in male line from
Hugh Capet are princes of the blood—i.e., they have the right to succeed to the French throne in the event that the male line of the royal family and of more senior princes die out. Hence, the then-impoverished Capetian House of Courtenay, being
agnatic descendants of
Louis VI of France, sought to be acknowledged as "
princes du sang" (Princes of the Blood Royal) and "cousins to the king", two titles normally reserved for the members of the royal family and prized for the seats at the
Royal Council and the
Parlement of Paris that they conferred upon its holders. Moreover, the Bourbons had difficulty producing surviving male dynasts in quantity until the mid-17th century. The
Capetian Courtenays were, after their cousins the Bourbons, the most senior surviving agnatic branch of the House of Capet, and under strict application of Salic law the Crown would pass to them should the Bourbons fall extinct. Three Bourbon kings in a row—Henry IV,
Louis XIII and
Louis XIV—turned down their petitions and the right to use a differenced version of the
fleur-de-lys royal arms. That the Bourbon monarchs confined the French royalty to the descendants of
Louis IX is evidenced by the
Treaty of Montmartre (1662) which named the non-Capetian
House of Lorraine as the next in line to the French throne after the
Bourbons, thus bypassing the Courtenay branch, a Capetian family. Although the Courtenays protested against this clause, their claims to the princely title were never acknowledged by the Paris Court of Accounts. The last male member of the French Courtenays died in 1733. His niece married the marquis de
Bauffremont, and their descendants assumed the title of "Prince de Courtenay" with dubious validity, which they bear to this day. The marquis de Bauffremont was made on 8 June 1757 Prince of the
Holy Roman Empire (inheritable by all male-line descendants); this title was recognised in France. Bauffremont-Courtenay are also
princes of Carency and dukes of Bauffremont. ==Genealogy==