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Majesty (abbreviated HM for His Majesty or Her Majesty, oral address Your Majesty; from the Latin , meaning ) is used as a manner of address by many , usually or queen regnant. Where used, the style outranks the style of (Imperial/Royal) Highness, but is inferior to the style of Imperial Majesty. It has cognates in many other languages, especially of Europe.
After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Majesty was used to describe a monarch of the very highest rank— it was generally applied to God. Variations, such as Catholic Majesty (Spain) or Britannic Majesty (United Kingdom) are often used in diplomatic settings where there otherwise may be ambiguity (see a list).
A person with the title is usually addressed as Your Majesty, and referred to as His/Her Majesty, abbreviated HM; the plural Their Majesties is TM. Emperors (and empresses) use His/Her/Their/Your Imperial Majesty, HIM or TIM.
Princely and ducal heads usually use His Highness or some variation thereof (e.g., His Serene Highness). In British practice, heads of princely states in the British Empire were referred to as Highness.
In monarchies that do not follow the European tradition, monarchs may be called Majesty whether or not they formally bear the title of King or Queen, as is the case in certain countries and amongst certain peoples in Africa and Asia.
In Europe, the monarchs of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium use the style. By contrast, the heads of state of Liechtenstein and Monaco, being principalities, use the inferior style of Serene Highness. Luxembourg, a Grand Duchy, accords its monarch the style of Royal Highness, as accorded to all other members of the Grand-Ducal Family, due to being descendants of Prince Félix of Bourbon-Parma. In the Holy See, the Pope – while ruling as Sovereign of the Vatican City State – uses the spiritual style of Holiness. Moreover, while Andorra is formally a monarchy, its Co-Princes – the bishop of Urgell (appointed by the Pope) and President of France – use the republican and non-royal style of Excellency. Andorra is the only non-hereditary, elective and appointive monarchy in Europe.
Most Gracious Majesty is used only in the most formal of occasions. Around 1519 King Henry VIII decided Majesty should become the style of the sovereign of England. Majesty, however, was not used exclusively; it arbitrarily alternated with both Highness and Grace, even in official documents. For example, one legal judgement issued by Henry VIII uses all three indiscriminately; Article 15 begins with, "The Kinges Highness hath ordered," Article 16 with, "The Kinges Majestie" and Article 17 with, "The Kinges Grace."
Pre-Union Scotland Sovereigns were only addressed as Your Grace. During the reign of James VI and I, Majesty became the official style, to the exclusion of others. In full, the Sovereign is still referred to as His (Her) Most Gracious Majesty, actually a merger of both the Scottish Grace and the English Majesty.
Britannic Majesty is the style used for the monarch and the crown in diplomacy, the law of nations, and international relations. For example, in the Mandate for Palestine of the League of Nations, it was His Britannic Majesty who was designated as the Mandatory for Palestine. Britannic Majesty is famously used in all , where the following sentence is used:
Most Excellent Majesty is mainly used in Acts of Parliament, where the phrase The King's (or Queen's) Most Excellent Majesty is used in the enacting clause. The standard is as follows: Wives of Kings are entitled to the style of Her Majesty (such as Queen Camilla). Husbands of queen regnant do not have the same right, as was the case with Queen Elizabeth II's consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who had the style Royal Highness. This is because a king outranks a queen; therefore, the consort would outrank the monarch. In addition, a woman holds the female equivalent of her husband's title but a man does not share his wife's title.
Traditionally, many Thai people referred to their kings as (), a term connected to the word father as seen in the Sukhothai Kingdom or the Phayao Kingdom, where the king is addressed as () or (). This reflects the concept of patriarchy, considering the king as the father and the people as the sons.กรมศิลปากร. (2547) Fine. Sukhothai Inscription No. 1. Ram Khamhaeng Inscription. Bangkok: National Library of Thailand. Retrieved 9 January 2024
During the reign of Uthong of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, society expanded, and the king's status evolved from father to god. King Ramathibodi I adopted the concept of Devaraja from the Khmer Empire, incorporating the word () from the Khmer king's title, along with () rooted in the Khmer language. The names of Thai kings also signify divinity, such as Ramathibodi meaning Rama the sovereign, Naresuan signifying God in human form, and Ramesuan a combination of Rama and Ishvaraศานติ ภักดีคำ และนวรัตน์ ภักดีคำ. (2561). ประวัติศาสตร์อยุธยาจากจารึก: จารึกสมัยอยุธยา. กรุงเทพฯ : สมาคมประวัติศาสตร์ในพระราชูปถัมภ์ฯ.
There is further evidence of similar uses, such as (), implying that the king holds the status of a Bodhisattva destined to attain enlightenment and become a Buddhahood in the future. (), meaning is the honorific title Bhikkhu use to address the king.
In 757, this term was first defined in the lead=yes to use only when addressing the lead=yes.
In Former Imperial House Law (1889), the use case of this term was expanded to include the Empress, the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager.
It reflects the title of Zilullah-fil-Alam ("Shadow of God on Earth"), referring to the Sultan as having a small bit of God's immense power. The title paduka means "victorious" from Old Malay while Sri is an honorific from Sanskrit. The title baginda is a third-person noun for royals and prophets.
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