Royal Highness
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Royal Highness


When used as a direct form of address, spoken or written, it takes the form Your Royal Highness. When used as a third-person reference, it is gender-specific (His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness, both abbreviated HRH) and, in plural, Their Royal Highnesses (TRH).




African usage


For example, the Nigerian traditional rulers of the Yoruba are usually styled using the HRH The X of Y method, even though they are confusingly known as kings in English and not the princes that the HRH style usually suggests. The chiefly appellation "Kabiyesi" (lit. He (or She) whose words are beyond question) is likewise used as the equivalent of the HRH and other such styles by this class of royalty when rendering their full titles in the Yoruba language.[]



In contrast to some other European kingdoms, the kingdom of Denmark reserves[how?] the superior style of Royal Highness only to the children of the monarch and the children of the crown prince; other grandchildren of a Danish monarch enjoy the style of Highness, e.g. Prince Nikolai of Denmark.[]

Holy Roman Empire

The title of Archduke or Archduchess of Austria was known to be complemented with the style of Royal Highness for all non-reigning members of the House of Habsburg and later the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Even though the Habsburgs held the Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire, it was nominally an elective office that could not be hereditarily transmitted, so the non-reigning family members adopted the style of members of the hereditary Royal family of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, etc.[]

This changed when Francis I of Austria dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, as the Archduchy of Austria was elevated to an Empire in 1804; the members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine abandoned the style of Royal Highness in favour of the style of Imperial and Royal Highness to reflect the creation of the Empire of Austria.[]

At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the former empress Marie Louise of France was restored to her Imperial and Royal style and granted the title of Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, as well as being restored to her premarital title of Archduchess and Imperial Princess of Austria, Royal Princess of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia.[]

Kingdom of the Netherlands


  • A former monarch upon abdication.
  • The heir presumptive to the throne.
  • The husband of a female monarch.
  • The spouse of the heir presumptive.
  • The legitimate children of the monarch and the wife of any legitimate son of the monarch.
  • The legitimate children of the heir presumptive.




In Norway the style of Royal Highness is reserved[by whom?] for the children of the monarch and the eldest child of the heir apparent. Other children of the heir apparent have the style Highness, e.g. Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway.[]


In Spain, the prince or princess of Asturias and his or her spouse and the infantes of Spain bear the style of Royal Highness. The infantes are the children of the monarch and the children of the prince or princess of Asturias. Their spouses are not infantes by marriage and do not bear the style of Royal Highness, although they usually bear the ducal title of their spouse with the style of The Most Excellent, like the children of the infantes and the grandees of Spain.[]

The consort of a Queen regnant also bears this style, along with the title of prince, although the last male consort, spouse of Queen Isabella II, was elevated to the dignity of King consort with the style of Majesty.[]

Finally, a regent designated outside of the royal family in the cases provided by law would bear the simple style of Highness.[]


Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, on their wedding day

When Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden married commoner Olof Daniel Westling in 2010, the Swedish Royal Court announced that Westling would become "Prince Daniel" and "Duke of Västergötland",[5] corresponding in form to the style used by Swedish princes of royal birth, including Victoria's younger brother Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland, i.e. Prince + Given name + Duke of [province]. Thus Westling was made a prince of Sweden and was granted the style Royal Highness, making him an official member of the Swedish royal family.

Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland married the commoner British-American banker Christopher O'Neill in 2013, but she did not adopt the surname O'Neill and instead retained the Bernadotte surname as do her children, and retained the style of Royal Highness. Christopher O'Neill kept his own name, unlike his brother-in-law Prince Daniel (above).[6][7] O'Neill was not granted royal status and has remained a private citizen, since he wished to retain his British and United States citizenships and his business. He declined Swedish citizenship and for that reason could not be a member of the Swedish Royal Family or Duke of Hälsingland and Gästrikland (his wife's titles).[8][9] To remain Swedish royalty and have succession rights to the Swedish throne, the couple's children will have to be raised in Sweden and as members of the Church of Sweden.[10]

Three of the sisters of King Gustaf were granted honorary titles of Princess (without nationality) when they married commoners but lost their Royal Highness status, as did two of his uncles earlier in the 20th century.[]

In October 2019, the grandchildren of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden retained the titles of Prince or Princess but lost the style of Royal Highness except for the children of the Crown Princess Victoria.[11][12]

Saudi Arabia

Sons, daughters, patrilineal grandsons and granddaughters of Ibn Saud are referred to by the style "His/Her Royal Highness" (HRH), differing from those belonging to the cadet branches, who are called "His/Her Highness" (HH) and in addition to that a reigning king has the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.[13][14]

United Kingdom

HRH the Princess of Wales (Princess Diana), in 1987

In British constitutional law use of the style H.R.H. or simply "Royal Highness" may only be conferred by letters patent and only to the children of the monarch's son.[a][16] It is typically associated with the rank of prince or princess (although this has not always applied, an exception being Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who received the style in 1947 prior to his marriage to Princess Elizabeth but was not formally created a British prince until 1957).[17] When a prince has another title such as Duke (or a princess the title of Duchess), they may be called HRH The Duke of .... For instance HRH The Duke of Connaught was a prince and a member of the royal family, while a non-royal duke such as His Grace The Duke of Devonshire is not a member of the British royal family, but is a member of the British peerage. When Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936 he was granted the style and title, HRH The Duke of Windsor. The woman he then married became the Duchess of Windsor, but she was denied the style HRH. Edward for much of the rest of his life attempted unsuccessfully to persuade the crown to grant her the style.[18]

According to letters patent issued by King George V in 1917 the sons and daughters of sovereigns and the male-line grandchildren of sovereigns are entitled to the style. It is for this reason that the daughters of the Duke of York, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, carry the HRH status, but the children of the Princess Royal, Peter Phillips, and Zara Tindall do not. The children of the Earl of Wessex, at the request of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, are styled as the children of an earl, and thus are known as Lady Louise and Viscount Severn. Under his letters patent, only the eldest son of the eldest living son of the Prince of Wales was also entitled to the style, but not younger sons or daughters of the eldest living son of the Prince of Wales. Queen Elizabeth II changed this in 2012 prior to the birth of Prince George of Cambridge so that all the children of the eldest living son of the Prince of Wales would bear the style.[19] This returned it to the format Queen Victoria had instituted in 1898.[20] There is no mention of younger living sons of a Prince of Wales; however, in 2018, Prince Harry married Meghan Markle and they were awarded the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Her title was styled as HRH The Duchess of Sussex. But Harry's son, Archie, is not automatically a British prince. On January 18, 2020, Queen Elizabeth II announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will no longer use the style of His/Her Royal Highness due to their decision to step down as working members of the British royal family, though they are still entitled (to the style).[21]

In the United Kingdom, letters patent dated 21 August 1996 stated that the wife of a member of the royal family loses the right to the style of HRH in the event of their divorce.[22]

See also


  1. ^ "The children of sons of any Sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland are entitled to the style of "Royal Highness," this privilege having been conferred upon them by letters patent.[15]


  1. ^ "Royal Styles and the uses of "Highness"". heraldica.org.
  2. ^ a b "Wet lidmaatschap koninklijk huis". overheid.nl.
  3. ^ a b "Titels". koninklijkhuis.nl. Archived from the original on 2013-08-06.
  4. ^ "Wet op de adeldom". wetten.nl.
  6. ^ "No O'Neill name change for Princess Madeleine". The Local. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 2013.
  11. ^ Swedish royals: Five of King's grandchildren no longer official members
  12. ^ "Swedish King Carl Gustaf removes grandchildren from royal house". BBC News. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2019.
  13. ^ Amos, Deborah (1991). "Sheikh to Chic". Mother Jones. p. 28. Retrieved 2016.
  14. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20160807041830/https://americanbedu.com/2010/03/23/saudi-arabia-hrh-or-hh/
  15. ^ Owen Hood Phillips (1957). The Constitutional Law of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Sweet & Maxwell. p. 370.
  16. ^ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, Privy Council, and Order of Preference. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1963. p. XXIX.
  17. ^ London Gazette, issue 41009, 22 February 1957 p.209
  18. ^ Cadbury, Deborah (2015). Princes at War. New York: Perseus Books Group: PublicAffairs. pp. 35-40. ISBN 978-1-61039-403-1. OCLC 890181198.
  19. ^ Rodger, James; Sloper, Rachel (15 October 2018). "Will Prince Harry and Meghan's children be princes and princesses?". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 2020.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ https://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/prince_highness_docs.htm#1898
  21. ^ "Harry and Meghan will not use HRH titles - palace". BBC News. 18 January 2020. Retrieved 2020.
  22. ^ "No. 54510". The London Gazette. 30 August 1996. p. 11603.




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