French Royal marriages question: What's considered equal?

Basically what the title says. I was looking through the marriages of the Princes du Sang (Princes of the Blood for those who don't know) and became increasingly confused over what was accepted as equal and was was morganatic. For example, Louis Joseph, Prince de Condé married his mistress Maria Caterina Brignole, Princesse de Monaco after her husbands death. This marriage, so far as I can tell, was accepted as equal.

On the other hand, Condé's grandson the famous Duc d'Enghien married Charlotte Louise de Rohan about a month before his murder, yet this marriage is treated as though it didn't happen or was unequal. Not to mention Louis-Philippe I, Duc d'Orléans marriage to his mistress Charlotte-Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou, which as also considered morganatic.

Basically what rank was acceptable for the Royal House of France to be considered equal?
 
Well being legitimated bastards seemed accepted. See the maariages of the Duke of Orleans. Granted, they were Royal bastards, but born bastards nonetheless.
 
Well being legitimated bastards seemed accepted. See the maariages of the Duke of Orleans. Granted, they were Royal bastards, but born bastards nonetheless.

But they were the King's bastards, who could easily declare the marriages equal. I was more meaning marriages between Princes and nobles.
 
I think who the marriage of Condè with Maria Caterina Brignole was considered equal because a) she was the widow of a prince étrangers (or Foreign Prince) and/or b) because her family gave many doges to Genoa (and two of them were her paternal uncles). I think the reason is mostly the first. King Louis XIV when he legitimized his bastards if I remember well gave them at least the same rank of the princes étrangers so a wedding in the royal house was considered equal. The house of Rohan also had the rank of a princes étrangers (and another Charlotte of Rohan was Condè's first wife) so I think who the marriage of Enghien with Charlotte was overlooked because was likely a private cerimony and only a month before Enghien's death but was equal (only they had not the time for having the wedding recognized as valid and legal)
 
OK so Princesees étranger were acceptable brides, for the most part. One other question then. This relates to a possible TL I'm planning. If Charles X's mistress, Comtesse Louise de Polastron had lived into the Bourbon restoration, could he have married her as an equal or would she be a morganatic spouse?
 
My understanding was that there was no such thing as a morganatic union in French law under the ancien regime or under the two Bonaparte's.

It does seem that the nearest thing the French had was the so-called secret marriage where the couple were legally married but it was regarded as an open secret - with the wife not taking her husband's title or styles - the obvious being Louis XIV's assumed marriage to the Marquise de Maintenon.

Orleans was only given permission to marry Charlotte-Jeanne in secret by Louis XV who clearly didn't approve of her status.
One assumes given the date he married that Enghien was unable to get permission and opted to marry Charlotte de Rohan privately to avoid having to wait.

It does seem that a marriage needed the approval of the reigning monarch but that was about it and therefore the whim of who was or was not considered appropriate fell to the monarch's person view. Under the Bonaparte's Imperial approval was needed for a marriage of a family member who was a Prince of France.
 
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