ANST -confused about titles again

[Tim McDaniel]

On Tue, 7 Apr 1998, Kateryn Heathrydge
<heatherford.manor at juno.com> wrote:
> HRM was His/Her Royal Majesty ...
True.
> I'll hazard that it's the "Royal" bit to which you object?

Precisely.  Brief summary: it's always been incorrect in all
periods of Europe.

When Tadhg Liath was Star Principal Herald, he wrote a short
article in the March 1991 Ansteorran Gazette.  Madter Tadhg
had several articles and points.  (Erm, that should be
"Master", but I like the typo.)  It gives no sources, but he
is pretty reliable.

(1) "'Royal Majesty'.  The appellation 'Majesty' originated
as a form of address peculiar to the Holy Roman Emperors.
There was only one Majesty, the Emperor, who was referred to
as 'His Majesty' [or, says Miss Manners, when referring to
or talking to himself, as 'Ma Majesti{e'}'], and no
qualification was necessary, since there was only the one.

"Eventually other 'Majestys' came on the scene.  First were
the Kings of France; Louis XI was given the title 'Most
CHristian Majesty' by the Pope (as Henry VIII of England was
later made 'Defender of the Faith'; Popes stumbled into a
lot of unintended irony in those days) in the late 1400s.
The Kings of Spain (actually the King of Aragon and the
Queen of Castile, Ferdinand and Isabella) next were granted
the appellation 'Most Catholic Majesty' for kicking first
the Moors and then the Jews out of Spain, all in the 1490s.
Eventually everyone with a crown got into the act; the King
of Portugal was 'His Most Faithful Majesty', and by the 18th
century it was common practice to refer to any King (or
Queen) by a national identifier -- hence the usage 'Her
Britannic Majesty' which survives to this day.

"Where did this leave the poor Emperor?  Well, the pecking
order had to be preserved, and since the Habsburg rulers
were not only the-original-authentic-Majesty as Emperors but
also cheap-imitation-Majesties as Kings of Bohemia and
Hungary, they reinforced their pre-eminence by using the
appellation 'Royal and Imperial Majesty'.  This is all,
however, substantially post-Period.  Even in Europe, the
term 'Royal Majesty' was only used by people (such as
Americans and journalists) who didn't know any better --
much as those same twits would refer to one's arms as a
'family crest'.

"The bottom line is that the term 'Royal Majesty' is correct
usage only when there exist Majesties other than Royal that
need to be distinguished thereby.  Since this is not the
case in the Current Middle Ages, the King and Queen of a
Kingdom are properly referred to as 'His Majesty', 'Her
Majesty', and 'Their Majesties', as is the case in Great
Britain today.  An equally correct usage is 'Their Stellar
Majesties', if one should wish to distinguish [the
Ansteorran crown] from, say Their Meridian Majesties or
Their Outlandish Majesties. ..."
                    -- Tadhg Liath
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