square banner |- | width="33%" align="center" | Langres, the only one of the five bishops not in the Reims province, bears the sceptre | width="33%" align="center" |Aquitaine also called Guyenne after its refounding, holds the second square banner |- | width="10%" rowspan="3" align="center" | Counts | width="33%" align="center" | Beauvais, bears the royal mantle | width="33%" align="center" | Toulouse, carries the spurs |- | width="33%" align="center" | Châlons, bears the royal ring | width="33%" align="center" | Flanders, carries the sword |- | width="33%" align="center" | Noyon, bears the belt | width="33%" align="center" | Champagne, holds the royal standard In 1204 the Duchy of Normandy was absorbed by the French crown, and later in the 13th century two more of the lay peerages were absorbed by the crown (Toulouse 1271, Champagne 1284), so in 1297 three new peerages were created, the County of Artois, the County of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany, to compensate for the three peerages that had disappeared. Thus, beginning in 1297 the practice started of creating new peerages by letters patent, specifying the fief to which the peerage was attached, and the conditions under which the fief could be transmitted (e.g. only male heirs) for princes of the blood who held an apanage. By 1328 all apanagists would be peers. The number of lay peerages increased over time from 7 in 1297 to 26 in 1400, 21 in 1505, and 24 in 1588. By 1789, there were 43, including five held by princes of the blood (Orléans, Condé, Bourbon, Enghien, and Conti), (who was the son of a legitimized prince, the Count of Toulouse, also a ), and 37 other lay peers, ranking from the Duchy of Uzès, created in 1572, to the Duchy of Aubigny, created in 1787. One family could hold several peerages. The minimum age was 25. The majority of new peerages created up until the fifteenth century were for royal princes, while new peerages from the sixteenth century on were increasingly created for non royals. After 1569 no more countships were made into peers, and peerage was exclusively given to duchies (). Occasionally the () refused to register the letters of patent conferring peerage on them. Apart from the coronation of French kings, the privileges of peers were largely matters of precedence, the titles , and the address , suggesting parentage to the royal family, or at least equivalence, by the King,