Brewer's: Faineant

Les Rois Fainéants (the cipher or puppet kings). Clovis II. and his ten successors were the puppet kings of the Palace Mayors. Louis V. (last of the Carlovingian dynasty) received the same designation.

“ `My signet you shall command with all my heart, madam,' said Earl Philip. ... `I am, you know, a complete Roy Fainéant, and never once interfered wth my Maire du Palais in her proceedings.' ” —SirWalterScott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. xv.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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