Fürst
![Fürsten crown used in heraldry, borne above the family coat of arms to indicate a principality ruled.[1] The Fürsten crown, sometimes placed together with an ermine-cloak, are not always found surrounding a Fürstenhaus (princely house) family coat of arms; these adornments were not part of formal coat-of-arms protocols but simply heraldic grace.[1]](/Images/godic/202501/14/Ströhl-Rangkronen-Fig._112429.png")
![Mediatised Fürsten headpiece used in heraldry.](/Images/godic/202501/14/Ströhl-Rangkronen-Fig._132429.png")
![Fürst von Putbus, Prussia, family coat of arms with surrounding heraldic adornments and Fürst crown.](/Images/godic/202501/14/Wappen_Fuerst_Putbus2430.jpg")
![Fürst von Liechtenstein, family coat of arms with mediatised Fürst headpiece.](/Images/godic/202501/14/Staatswappen-Liechtensteins.svg2430.png")
Fürst (German pronunciation:[ˈfʏʁst], female form Fürstin, plural Fürsten; from Old High German furisto "der Erste", English "the first", a translation of the Latin princeps) were, since the medieval period, members of the highest nobility who ruled over states of the Holy Roman Empire and later its former territories, below the ruling Kaiser (emperor) or König (king). A Prince of the Holy Roman Empire was the reigning sovereign ruler, monarch, of an imperial state that held imperial immediacy in the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire. The territory ruled is referred to in German as a Fürstentum (principality), the family dynasty referred to as a Fürstenhaus (princely house), and the (non-reigning) descendants of a Fürst are titled and referred to in German as Prinz (prince) or Prinzessin (princess).