Hi all, I'm trying to navigate the minefield of how to address royalty in my story. I'm using the English royalty/nobility as a base. How would a king address the crown prince and princess? How would the prince and princess address their father/king? How would the kings from different countries address each other? How would princes and princesses from different countries address each other? Help would be greatly appreciated. I've found sources on the internet, but they often seem to be missing information or just do not sound natural.
This is a guess based on my own reasoning because history was written by royal scribes and often depicturing them as more glorious than in reality. The regular people usually described them as evil dictators to the contrary. European kings had to appear official in front of servants by using proper titles, but when alone with their family they can adress each other casually if they are that kind of family. It's seen as their tiresome job to appear like more than human to the crowd. Inbreeding was a common problem, causing learning disabilities to hide. The royalties of ancient Macedon and Egypt probably demanded the most respect, with made up stories about being chosen by or related to the gods. Just saying king might not please them. I used to watch historical soap operas about emperors while traveling in China, so their language had probably been refined by the actors adding extra accents and stuff. China requires the proper title to be accompanied by bending of casual words. In the old days, they might drown their own child in a river for being unfaithful in marriage, so honor was very important. Concubines were common for the emperor thou. Japanese people use different words depending on if the person is older, younger or seen as an equal. Table seating is important. The Japanese emperor would probably always be formal when addressing his children, but only they knew for sure what happened in privacy.
Quite a lot of information in this link, especially pertaining to the British royal family. But there are links to other related questions as well. I'd say Google is your friend here, but it helps to ask the question as specifically as possible. https://www.quora.com/How-do-English-royals-address-each-other
I'd keep it simple. Maybe something like this... "Hey, you, Mr. Fancy Pants", or "Hey, Queeny". It's how I'd address royalty.
In general, in my historical fiction, I refer to kings, emperors, generals and other high ranking persons as "Your Excellency," partly because there is some basis for this in Roman formal address, excellentius or excellentissimus, and I felt "Your Highness" or "Your Majesty" too medieval/modern. Senior military officers simply got "sir". The Emperor of Parthia was Shahanshah, "King of Kings," used up to modern times by the Shah of Iran. The Bactrian king was similar, Saonasao, same meaning, different but related language. However, the Emperor of China was "The Son of Heaven", whether speaking to him or of him, under pain of death. As noted above, within personal relations among friends and relations, first names sufficed. Polite address for upper class Romans was first name plus gens, so speaking to Senator Aulus Aemilius Galba, one would address him formally as "Aulus Aemilius," unless the recipient dispensed with formality, then it became just "Aulus." There was the public style of address, and the private. In general, keep it simple. At least that is how I tried to do it.
Just to let you know to save you some potential trouble later, thread bumping is a no-no on this Forum, per the Forum rules we're all sent when we join. To add to the others' answers above: it depends on the context, but when they're not taking part in official duties, the Royal Family address each other by their names or nicknames, just like any other family. Queen Elizabeth's was "Lilibet", for example, her father was "Bertie", and King Edward, who abdicated the throne was "David". Books of royal correspondence (such as the letters of Wallis and Edward) and the Netflix series The Crown show the differences between "family time" address and "on duty" address pretty well.
Thanks everyone for your great responses. Gave me a lot to think about. The Crown is very good at showing the contrast between public and behind closed doors. There's a lot of info, so I've had a go at compiling a little chart to try and make for easy reference: Chart 1: royalty Chart 2: nobility There are blanks where I couldn't find any info. And the titles highlighted in yellow are ones I'm unsure of. What do you all think, and do you have any suggestions for clearing up the yellow highlights in the reference charts? PS. Sorry for the bump lol.
