Fascinating Fridays (Styles of Address)

Another Fascinating Friday, discussing something technical about Royalty. I do try my best to keep it stimulating while not compromising the information. So here we go today with a continuance on my "lecture" on Royal Titles. Today we discuss how to address who.

First up we need to understand that "form of address" is called a "style". This is an official institution that is sanctioned by international treaties of agreement and as such becomes International Law. Styles can only be granted along with titles by the Royal heads of state of monarchies or in some other archaic instances by democratic heads of state . These styles are as follow;

An anointed head of state gains the style of, Your Majesty. This applies at present to the Queen of Hispania, the Queen of Normandia and the King and Queen of Syldavia.

If he ranks as an Emperor, Your Imperial Majesty. This applies by courtesy to Empress Crystobel only. 

Ruling Princes have varying styles depending mostly on local custom but general consensus grants them, Your Royal Highness. This applies to the Grand Duke of Hanoveria and the Duke of Swann.

In the case of ruling Grand Dukes it is rare but still correct to use, Your Grand Ducal Highness but this has fallen out of favour and is now only used in the unique instances of the Grand Duke of Serbieski and the Grand Duke of Reichenthal, who do not rule per se.

In the unique case the Grand Princess of Wallachia has the style of  Your Serene Highness even though she ranks equal to a ruling Prince with the style Your Royal Highness. This is purely due to historical tradition of the region.

Ruling Counts Palatine are styled, Your Illustrious Highness. This would be applicable to the Count of Bo'Hemia in the new Kingdom of Syldavia. 

It is appropriate to address a married couple of the same style as "Their" Royal Highnessess the Grand Duke  and Grand Duchess of Hanoveria. If the styles differ they have to be named separately.  

Next up we have the children of ruling monarchs.

All children of Kings are styled, Your Royal Highness even the heir apparent.

All children of Emperors are styled, Your Imperial Highness. 

Some Kingdoms allow the grandchildren of monarchs to be styled, Your Royal Highness and others choose to differentiate them with the style, Your Highness only. 

The children of  ruling Princes are also styled, Your Royal Highness.

There grandchildren however are always Your Highness unless they are the heir apparent. 

In the case of Wallachia, the children are styled Your Highness only and in the case of the heir apparent is styled Your Serene Highness. 

Let's deal with the Nobility next. 

Noble Princes like the Youssopoffs also carry the style Your Serene Highness for the head of the family only. Their children have the style Your Highness.

Dukes are always styled Your Grace.

Everything below a Duke is styled, Your Lordship.

Their children are styled, the Honourable.

Hispania, Normandia and Syldavia style all their nobility below a Duke as, Your Excellency.

In Hispania the children of Nobles and indeed all Nobles and even Royalty may be referred

 to a Don as an across the board style.
In Syldavia and Normandia the children of Nobles are styled, Highborn.

Her Royal Highness Princess Isabella of Hispania and her husband His Grace the Duke of Toledo.

Arcwhite as no styles of address for their ruler or Nobility. Lady Arcwhite is just commonly referred to as My Lady and the same goes for all Nobility. She was given the style Your Illustrious Highness by common consensus of all the other monarchies but has refused it and has never used it. She is reputed to hate it and apparently finds it demeaning. 

An Interesting note is that if a woman marries a man of a "higher" style, she gains it by courtesy of marriage. So Her Royal Highness Princess Maxima of Hanoveria became Her Majesty Queen Maxima of Syldavia. However if the wife has a higher style by birth she retains it followed by her new title. Her Royal Highness Princess Kirsten of Hanoveria thus became Her Royal Highness the Princess Youssopoff instead of Her Serene Highness as it would have been otherwise. 

Standard procedure when addressing someone with a title is to use the style upon greeting, then to switch to "sir" or "ma'am" accordingly. Once the conversation is over one ends it with a final farewell or thank you using the style for the second and last time. 

There is a unique form of address reserved for the theoretical title of Holy Emperor and that is, His Supreme Majesty. This style was only claimed once by the Medieval Emperor Christian the Great. It has never been used since.