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Originally, princes were not sons of kings; rather, they were rulers in their own right; such as the Seven Principalities of the Holy Roman Empire in feudal Europe. These seven Princes elected the Holy Roman Emperor.
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Interesting tidbit Little Man, and it's nice to see someone else interested in digging around the roots of democracy. As you point out, however, these Princes elected the Emperor, to whom they were subservient. So these Princes, while rulers in their own right, were not absolute rulers. In this respect they can be compared to leaders such as Prince Imrahil, who ruled a "Princedom" but was secondary to the King of Gondor and to the High King of Gondor and Arnor (the only remaining Numenorean realms), in that order. As an aside, it's quite interesting that a ruler of Dol Amroth never made a play for the throne of Gondor. Love those Amroths!
Re-reading UT, I found answers to one of the questions brought up on this thread. In one version (someone please correct me if this was not the latest version) of the story, Amroth was King of Lorien. When he got all starry-eyed and followed after Nimrodel, eventually drowning, Celeborn and Galadriel took over as rulers of Lorien. Until that time they had never permanently lived in Lorien, travelling between there, Eregion and Rivendell. They did not take the title of King and Queen, as they did not inherit this from Amroth, and were really kind of Stewards, like the Lord Denethor in LOTR - hence Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel.
The Lord Círdan thing still confuses me. He was a Telerin and a Sindarin Elf, they're not as haughty as Noldorins, but Thranduil and Oropher were Kings, so why wasn't he? Did he hold himself under the rulership of another, such as Thingol and his descendants? Or was it simply lack of ego/ambition?