In my book, I have a scene where the main character and his companion are ariving unexpecantly at a medevial style tournament. The companion rides into the middle of the arena, to petition for the main character to be allowed as a late entery. This in itself is rather unorthadox historically, but he will be allowed to enter. My question here is I need to come up with some little speach or somthing for the companion to say to the newly crowned king, bride to be, the kings mother, and any other esteemed guest in the viewing box. How would he address them? Would he mention the king first, or last, or would he get away with adressing the group as a whole?
One thing I just learned from one of my professors was that in Britain (England by extension, I guess), you're supposed to address the monarch "Your majesty" the first time, and then "sir" or "m'am/madam" every other subsequent time. That's all I know right now. Although I would assume that the king should be addressed first...
I didn't know about the "Sir" bit, thanks. I assume the king first as well but I want to be sure. Mostly it's the other royalty of the group I need clarification on. As much as a pain it would be to have to say each title and such, would they do that?
The king would be refered to as 'your Majesty.' The queen would be, 'your Highness." Lesser royalty such as barons and such would probably be 'my Lord,' or 'my Lady.'
Is the royalty of British derivation? Different cultural traditions will have different rules foir titles and forms of address.
You should be ok with addressing the king and his queen and then lumping the rest of the nobles together as "lords and ladies", or you can just use the speech Chaucer gave in A Knights Tale, jk lol. Btw Highness and Majesty are both interchangeable between male and female. They could be said for either, but if as you say its the kings bride to be shes not the Queen yet and therefore would still be a Lady.
You could addresses them as "My King, Lords and Ladies of the Royal House" or something like that. It's your story, effectively you could make up your own words to address your Royal family.
Thank you all for the replies. It's not scrictly british, but more just western european in general. It's a fantasy so I don't have to stirctly follow the proper way to do things but I would like to keep it based in reality. I loved Chaucer in a kinghts tale lol but sadly this companion's character wouldn't fit a speech like that. Though I have another character that could...I might have him herald for the MC just to have some fun in it lol
If it's fantasy then you probably can even make something up as long as it'll make sense to the reader, or if it will be somehow explained to the reader. Of course, you might simply want to follow English/British conventions since they're probably the most familiar to your English-speaking audience (assuming you're writing in English, of course) or would make the most sense to them. Either way since it's fantasy, the great thing is that you can choose whatever you want. Heck, you might even look up the greeting ceremonies of some random culture like that of the Mongolians or Zulus or Aztecs or something if it suits your needs.
To address a Sovereign properly, you should say: "All-highest Highness, most magnificent Emperor and King, Protector of the Holy Stool, Saviour of the Golden Platypus, Lord-Defender of the One True Faith, Prince of Saskwatch, Quemugg, Lolodon and Buggermeifidinnaforgetthisone, Mediator of the People of the Sacred Valley, most gracious Emperor, King, and Lord,"
You know reading this reply it suddenly struck me that, hell, if I met the Queen I would probably find someway of accidentally insulting her. I have no idea what the proper way to meet and greet the Royal Family is to be perfectly honest with you! So even you did research the proper conventions I imagine a lot of people would be none the wiser!
Monty Python? Lol. Epic. But yeah, I'd do something like "Respectably, Lords and Ladies" etc. But it is your story, perhaps they have a different addressing schema.
If you research a bit, a lot of real noble and royal titles were a mass of insanity worse than that. I guess you could just use the kind of formalities that would seem to be the most believable, if not the most realistic.
I know. That was actually a combination of some of the (fictionalized) titles and addresses for the German Kaiser, Napoléon and the King of Spain. I was really trying to find a letter from the mid-17th or 18th century, where often the letter fills a whole page, and the first half of the page is merely the salutation. Wasn't able to find one on such short notice, though. The Spaniards are the worst.
I've heard the Russian Tsar had one that was several pages long, although I could be confusing that with something else.
Indeed I know royal titles where much like a *fill in the blank* measuring contest, but I think I have some idea of what I'm gonna do. I've been up all night writing a entirely different scene in the book, but I hope to get to this one within the next couple of days. I look forward to sharing with y'all what I've been working on, and thank you again for all the replys.
Depends on the size you write it in: By the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia, Samogitia, Belostok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria and other territories; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhni Novgorod, Sovereign of Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, and all northern territories; Sovereign of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardinian lands and Armenian territories - hereditary Lord and Ruler of the Circassians and Mountain Princes and others; Lord of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth, I humbly submit to your Imperial Majesty that luncheon is now ready to be served in the Grand Salon.
If you wanted to add in some flattery towards the ruler, you could throw in a few of his accomplishments as well like 'Conqueror of Shambala,' and 'Slayers of Moby Dick.'
All I know about addressing royalty is that you must never touch royalty, so your characters can't give them a hug! Also, you must always wait for the royalty to speak first. You don't start the conversation, they do.
In the British army, the following rules hold: Speaking directly to the Queen, only if she has spoken to you first, address her as 'your majesty' at the start of the conversation, but from then on as 'Ma'am'. When introducing someone to the queen (or king), use 'your majesty': 'May I introduce Sgnt Wells, your majesty?' Speaking directly to royal princes, if they have spoken to you first: address as 'Your royal highness' and then 'Sir'. This is one of the few times where I think writing fantasy must be fun--you are free to make up your own protocol, but be sure to stick to the rules you invent!
