In the Continental practice, dukes rank above princes. Grand dukes are one step up from dukes; they are certainly not glorified princes
I know that this is a *higher* title than Prince [look how cadet members of the Romanov imperial dynasty in Russia were styled. Also, in Baden and Luxembourg, the sovereigns were/are styled as Grand Duke/ Duchess, while cadet members of the dynasty are styled as Prince(ss). The exception is the heir(ess), who is styled as the Hereditary Grand Duke/Duchess].
Nevertheless, is a grand duke, in some way, A prince -- just not called that? Is he a kind of *glorified* prince? The reason for my asking is that some time ago, somebody on alt.talk.royalty suggested that the title Grand Duke (as applicable to the Romanovs) was a bad translation -- and that it really should be "Grand Prince." But others have since then confirmed that "Grand Duke" is correct.
Perhaps this is somewhat like asking whether an emperor is a glorified king ... Well: everybody knows that all archbishops are bishops, but not all bishops are archbishops. The same logic would apply to royalty, whereby all emperors are kings, but not all kings are emperors (which the Duchess of Edinburgh, born Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, went out of her way to stress, in trying to claim a higher rank in the British royal court than the Princess of Wales).
Is it correct to state that all grand dukes are princes, but not all princes are grand dukes? I ask this because there have also been SOVEREIGN princes (e.g. Liechtenstein and Monaco). To the best of my knowledge, sovereign grand dukes have always outranked sovereign princes: they're even styled as Royal Highnesses, which the latter are not.
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