Princesse lointaine
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A princess lointaine or princesse lointaine, (in French, "distant princess") is a stock character from medieval romances. The romantic interest of many knights errant, she was usually a woman of much higher birth, often far distant from the knight, and usually wealthier than he was, beautiful, and of admirable character. Some knights had, indeed, fallen in love with the princess owing to hearing descriptions of her, without seeing her, as tales said Jaufré Rudel had fallen in love with Hodierna of Tripoli.
The term has been used subsequently to refer to women whose chief characteristic as love interests has been their unattainability.
[edit] Examples
- Little Red-Haired Girl in Peanuts
- Cho Chang in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (in the subsequent book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, she loses this status, i.e. becomes attainable)
