[edit] Titles, Peerage and OrdersThere were two kinds of titles used by french nobles, some were personnal ranks, other were titles linked to the fiefs owned, called fiefs de dignité.
Titles : Duc, possessor of a duchy (duché) and recognized as duke by the king Marquis, possessor of a marquesate (marquisat) or merely assumed by ambitious families Comte, possessor of a county (comté) or merely assumed by ambitious families Vicomte, possessor of a viscounty (vicomté) Baron, possessor of a barony (baronnie) Prince, possessor of a lordship styled principalty (principauté), title which was only semi-official and never gave his possessor precedence at the court. Not to be confused with the rank of Prince Seigneur, meaning lord as possessor of a lordship, can be the title of non-nobles. Generally referred to by sieur i.e. sir, followed by the name of the fief, as in sieur de Crenne. 
Ranks Fils de France : son of a king Petit-fils de France : grandson of a king Prince of the Blood (prince du sang) : any legitimate male-line descendent of a king of France[4] Prince étranger (Foreign Prince) : members of foreign royal or princely families naturalized at the french court, like the Clèves, Rohan, La Tour d'Auvergne and Lorraine. Chevalier, rank assumed only by the most noble families and the possessors of certain high dignities in the court. Member of the orders of chivalry had a title of chevalier, but not a rank of chevalier, which can be confusing. Écuyer, rank of the vast majority of the nobles. Also called valet or noble homme in certain regions. 

The term gentilhomme (gentleman), was used for any noble, from the king to the last écuyer whitout any title.
The Pairie was technically a dignity of the Crown, as marshall, but was in fact the highest title used by the french nobility. The peerage was only awarded to princes of the Blood, some foreign princes, some bishops and dukes, often from the most ancient and powerful families. The peers could sit in the Parliament of Paris, the most important Court of Justice in the kingdom.
In his full style, a noble shall use both his rank, his title and his dignity, as in Marie Jean de Caritat, écuyer, marquis de Condorcet or Louis de Rouvroy, chevalier, duc de Saint-Simon, pair de France
In principle the expression seigneur (lord of the manor) applied to anyone possessing a fief, but the term was often used to imply a grand seigneur, or noble of high rank or status.
The use of de in noble names (Fr: la particule) was not officially controlled in France (unlike von in the German states), and is not reliable evidence of the bearer's nobility. A simple tailor could be named Marc de Lyon, as a sign of his birth place. In the nineteenth century, the de was mistakenly adopted by some non-nobles (like Honoré de Balzac) in an attempt to appear noble.
Each rank of nobility — Royal Prince, Prince from collateral lines of the royal family ("prince du sang"), Duc, Marquis, Comte, Vicomte, Baron, etc. — conferred its own privileges (dukes for example could enter royal residences in a carriage, duchesses could sit on a stool with the queen). Dukes in France — the most important group after the princes — were further divided into those who were also "peers" ("Duc et Pair") and those who were not. Dukes without peerage could fall into two groups: those without peerage fiefs, or those for whom the Parlement refused to register the "lettres patentes" conferring peerage on them.
Noble hierarchies were further complicated by the creation of knightly orders — the " Chevaliers du Saint-Esprit" (Knights of the Holy Spirit) created by Henri III of France in 1578; the "Ordre de Saint-Michel" created by Louis XI of France in 1469; the "Order of Saint Louis" created by Louis XIV of France in 1696 — by official posts, and by positions in the Royal House (the Great Officers of the Crown of France), such as "grand maître de la garde robe" (the "royal dresser") or "Grand panetier" (the "royal bread server") which had long ceased to be practical and had become formal positions with their own privileges. The 17th and 18th century saw nobles and the "noblesse de robe" battle each other for these positions and any other sign of royal favor. Attending the ceremony of the king's waking at Versailles (the smaller and intimate "petit lever du roi" and the more formal "grand lever du roi"), being asked to cross the barriers that separated the royal bed from the rest of the room, being invited to speak with the king, or to have a comment said by the king about a noble... all were signs of favor and actively sought.


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