Dauphin
The Dauphin was the heir apparent to the throne of France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties.
Guy VIII, Count of Vienne, had a dolphin on his coat of arms and had been nicknamed le Dauphin (French for dolphin). In heraldry, a dolphin device displayed on a shield denotes the oldest son of a family; a crest device displayed denotes the second oldest. The title of Dauphin de Viennois descended in his family until 1349, when Humbert II sold his signeurie, called the Dauphiné, to King Philippe VI on condition that the heir of France assumed the title of le Dauphin. The wife of the Dauphin was known as la Dauphine.
The first French prince called le Dauphin was Charles V.
List of Dauphins, 1349-1830
- Charles (future Charles V of France) 1349–1364
- Charles (future Charles VI of France) 1368-1380
- Charles 1389
- Charles 1392–1401
- Louis, Duc de Guyenne 1401–1415
- Jean de Touraine, Duc de Touraine 1415–1417
- Charles (future Charles VII of France) 1417–1422
- Louis (future Louis XI of France) 1423–1461
- Charles (future Charles VIII of France) 1470–1483
- Charles-Orland 1492–1495
- Charles 1496
- François 1497–1498
- François, Duc de Bretagne 1518–1536
- Henri, formerly Duc d'Orléans (future Henry II of France) 1536–1547
- François (future Francis II of France) 1547–1559
- Louis (future Louis XIII of France) 1601–1610
- Louis (future Louis XIV of France) 1638–1643
- Louis, le Grand Dauphin 1661–1711
- Louis, Duke of Burgundy 1711–1712
- Louis, Duke of Brittany 1712
- Louis (future Louis XV of France) 1712–1715
- Louis, dauphin de France 1729–1765
- Louis-Auguste, Duc de Berry (future Louis XVI of France) 1765–1774
- Louis-Joseph 1781–1789
- Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie (future titular Louis XVII of France) 1789–1791 (in 1791 his title was changed to "Prince Royal")
- Louis-Antoine, Duc d'Angoulême (future titular Louis XIX of France) 1824–1830
In literature
In Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck encounters two odd characters who turn out to be professional con men. One of them claims that he should be treated with deference, since he is really an impoverished English duke, and the other, not to be outdone, reveals that he is "really" the Dauphin, presumably Louis XVII.
