Whereas the wife of a duke-and-peer could use a "ployant", other duchesses, domestic or foreign, lacked the prerogative. Yet not only could the wife of any "prince étranger" claim a "tabouret", but so could his daughters and sisters. This distinction was based on the fact that a peer's rank derived, legally, from his position as an officer of the Parlement of Paris, whereas the rank held by a prince derived from a dignity rooted in his sovereign blood line rather than in his function. Thus a duchess-peeress shares in her husband's "de jure" rank as an official, but that privilege is extended to no other of his family. Yet all daughters and sisters in the legitimate male line of a prince share his blood, and thus his status, as do his wife and the wives of his patrilineage.