In Italy the title "prince" (principe) is also of very unequal value. The heads of great families sometimes bear the title of "prince," sometimes that of "duke." The title of "prince of Naples" is attached to the eldest son of the king of Italy.
"Prince" is also the translation of the Russian title knyaz. In general, though the title "prince" implies descent from one or other of the ruling dynasties of Russia, it is in itself of little account owing to its being borne by every member of the family. The title of "prince" is also borne by the descendants of those Greek Phanariot families (see PHANARIOTES), who formerly sup plied hospodars to the Turkish principalities on the Danube. The only instance in Europe of "prince" as a completely sovereign title is that of the prince of Monaco, the formal style having been adopted by the Grimaldi lords in 1641.
Nor is this use of great antiquity; the custom of giving the cour tesy title of "prince" to all male descendants of the sovereign to the third and fourth generation being foreign to English tradi tions. It was not till the reign of Henry VII. that the king's sons began to be styled "princes"; and as late as the time of Charles II., the daughters of the duke of York, both of whom became queens regnant, were called simply the Lady Mary and the Lady Anne. The title of "princess royal," bestowed on the eldest daugh ter of the sovereign was borrowed by King George II. from Prussia. Until recent years the title "prince" was never conferred on anybody except the heir-apparent to the Crown, and his prin cipality is a peerage. Since the reign of Edward III. the eldest sons of the kings and queens of England have always been dukes of Cornwall by birth, and, with a few exceptions, princes of Wales by creation. Before that Edward I. had conferred the principality
on his eldest son, afterwards Edward II., who was summoned to and sat in parliament as prince of Wales. But Edward the Black Prince was the original grantee of the principality as well as of the dukedom, under the special limitations which have continued in force to the present day. The entail of the former was "to him and his heirs the kings of England" and of the latter "to him and his heirs the first-begotten sons of the kings of England." Hence when a prince of Wales and duke of Cornwall succeeds to the throne the principality in all cases merges at once in the Crown, and can have no separate existence again except under a fresh creation, while the dukedom, if he has a son, descends immediately to him, or remains in abeyance until he has a son born. If, how ever, a prince of Wales and duke of Cornwall should die in the lifetime of the sovereign, leaving a son and heir, both dignities are extinguished, because his son, although he is his heir, is neither a king of England nor the first-begotten son of a king of England. But, if instead of a son he should leave a brother his heir, then —as was decided in the reign of James I. on the death of Henry, prince of Wales, whose heir was his brother Charles, duke of York—the dukedom of Cornwall would pass to him as the first begotten son of the king of England then alive, the principality of Wales alone becoming merged in the Crown.
But even now the children of the sovereign other than his eldest son, though by courtesy "princes" and "princesses," need a royal warrant to raise them de jure above the common herd; and even then they remain "commoners" till raised to the peer age. In 1905 King Edward VII. established what appears to be a new precedent, by conferring the titles of "princess" and "high ness" upon the daughters of the princess Louise, duchess of Fife, created "princess royal."