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Former honorary title or title of ruler

Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (princeps imperii, Reichsfürst, cf. Fürst) was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Originally, possessors of the princely title bore it as immediate vassals of the Emperor who held a fief (secular or ecclesiastical) that had no suzerain except the Emperor. However, by the time the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, there were a number of holders of Imperial princely titles who did not meet these criteria. Thus, there were two main types of princes: those who exercised Landeshoheit (sovereignty within one's territory while respecting the laws and traditions of the empire) as well as an individual or shared vote in the College of Princes, and those whose title was honorary (the possessor lacking an immediate Imperial fief and/or a vote in the Imperial Diet). The first came to be reckoned as "royalty" in the sense of being treated as sovereigns, entitled to inter marry with reigning dynasties. The second tier consisted of high ranking nobles whose princely title did not, however, imply equality with royalty. These distinctions evolved within the Empire, but were codified by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 when it created the German Confederation and recognised a specific, elevated status (Standesherren or Mediatized Houses) for the mediatized princes of the defunct Empire. The actual titles used by Imperial nobles varied considerably for historical reasons, and included archdukes, dukes, margraves, landgraves, counts palatine, princely counts (Gefürstete Grafen), as well as princes and prince electors. Moreover, most of the German fiefs in the Empire (except electorships) were heritable by all males of a family rather than by primogeniture, the princely title (or whatever title the family used) being likewise shared by all agnatic family members, male and female.

The honorary status of prince of the Holy Roman Empire might be granted to certain individuals. These individuals included:

Rulers of states of the Empire who did not hold an individual seat in the princely chamber of the Imperial Diet, but held a seat as a count and shared with other counts in the one vote exercised by each of the four regional comital councils or Grafenbanken. Sovereigns outside the Empire, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Nobles allowed to bear the princely title, but who had neither a vote nor a seat in the Imperial Diet, individual or shared, such as the House of Kinsky. This included nobles who lacked immediacy, but who were allowed, motu proprio, by the Emperor to enjoy the title and rank of prince of an Imperial state. Although this courtesy tended to become hereditary for families, the right to princely status was called Personalist (personal) and could be revoked by the Emperor. Foreigners of note, such as the Princes of Belmonte, the Princes Chigi, the Princes Orsini, the Princes of Broglie, the Princes Orloff, the Princes Potemkin, the Princes Lubomirski, or the Princes Radziwiłł. Subjects of the Empire who were given a princely title by an Emperor, but who held no territory or sovereignty at all. This status was occasionally granted to the morganatic wives and children of electoral and immediate families, allowing them to share in the husband/father's princely title, but not his princely rank and privileges (e. g., Frederick William von Hessenstein).