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Style (form of address)

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A style of office, or honorific, is a form of address which by tradition or law precedes a reference to a person who holds a title or post, or to the political office itself. An honorific can also be awarded to an individual in a personal capacity. Such styles are particularly associated with monarchies, where they may be used by a wife of an office holder or of a prince of the blood, for the duration of their marriage. They are also almost universally used for presidents in republics and in many countries for members of legislative bodies, higher-ranking judges and senior constitutional office holders. Leading religious figures also have styles.

Examples of styles

In law courts

In diplomacy

  • His Excellency (abbreviation HE, oral address Your Excellency) — most Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Permanent Representatives to International Organizations; sometimes also the Presidents of the Republics, Governors of provinces and the Prime Minister.
  • The Honorable (oral address Mr./Madam Ambassador) — U.S. Ambassadors

In religion

  • His All Holiness (abbreviation HAH, oral address Your All Holiness) — The Patriarch of Constantinople
  • His Holiness (abbreviation HH, oral address Your Holiness) — The Pope (Roman Catholic Church), The Dalai Lama, The Coptic Pope, The Patriarch of Moscow, The Pharaoh (Kemetic Orthodoxy)
  • Holy Father — The Pope of Rome
  • His Beatitude (oral address Your Beatitude) — Eastern, Oriental and Roman Catholic Patriarchs
  • His Eminence (oral address Your Eminence) — Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Metropolitans and Archbishops
  • His Excellency or The Most Reverend (abbreviation The Most Rev., oral address Your Excellency) — Roman Catholic Archbishops and Bishops in the United States.
  • His Grace or The Most Reverend (abbreviation for latter The Most Rev., oral address Your Grace) — Roman Catholic Archbishops in Commonwealth countries; and Roman Catholic Bishops in Ireland
  • His Grace or The Right Reverend (abbreviation for latter The Rt. Rev., oral address Your Grace) — Eastern Orthodox Bishops
  • His Lordship or The Right Reverend (abbreviation for latter The Rt Rev., oral address My Lord Bishop) — Roman Catholic Bishops in Commonwealth countries.
  • The Most Reverend and Right Honourable (abbreviation The Most Rev. and Rt Hon., oral address Your Grace) — Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York
  • The Most Reverend (abbreviation The Most Rev., oral address Your Grace) — Anglican Archbishop of Wales; Anglican Archbishops of Armagh and of Dublin
  • The Most Reverend (abbreviation The Most Rev./Rev., oral address Father) — The Leader of "The People of the Aten"
  • The Most Reverend (abbreviation The Most Rev., oral address My Lord) — Anglican Bishop of Meath and Kildare
  • The Right Reverend and Right Honourable (abbreviation The Rt Rev. and Rt Hon., oral address Bishop) — Anglican Bishop of London
  • The Right Reverend (abbreviation The Rt Rev., oral address Bishop) — other Anglican Bishops
  • The Right Reverend (abbreviation The Rt Rev., oral address Reverend) — Moderator of the United Church of Canada
  • The Right Reverend Father (abbreviation The Rt. Rev. Fr., oral address Father) — Eastern Orthodox archimandrites
  • The Very Reverend (abbreviation The Very Rev. , oral address Father) — [Roman Catholic Church] vicars general, judicial vicars, judges, rectors of seminaries, vicars forane
  • The Very Reverend Father (abbreviation The Very Rev. Fr., oral address Father) — Eastern Orthodox archpriests
  • The Very Reverend (abbreviation The Very Rev. , oral address Very Reverend Sir or Mr Dean) — Anglican Deans of Cathedrals and Seminaries
  • The Reverend Monsignor (abbreviation The Rev. Msgr., oral address Monsignor) — Roman Catholic Church protonotaries apostolic, honorary prelates, chaplains of his holiness
  • The Venerable (oral address Venerable Sir or Mr. Archdeacon) — Anglican Archdeacons
  • The Reverend and Right Honourable (abbreviation The Revd and Rt Hon.) — Protestant ordained ministers who are members of the Privy Council (Dr Ian Paisley)
  • The Reverend (abbreviation The Rev., or, occasionally, The Rev'd.) — Protestant ordained ministers (common variants include Pastor, Parson, Vicar, or simply Reverend (although the latter is technically an adjective, its use as an appositive has become widely acceptable; see: The Reverend) )
  • The Reverend Canon (abbreviation The Rev. Canon, oral address Canon) — Anglican Canons
  • The Reverend Doctor (abbreviation The Rev. Dr., oral address Father or Doctor) — priests with a Doctorate in Theology
  • The Reverend Father (abbreviation The Rev. Fr., oral address Father) — Catholic (and many Anglican) priests
  • The Reverend Mother (abbreviation The Rev. Mo., oral address Mother) — Abbesses (also, many female Anglican priests)
  • The Reverend Mister (abbreviation The Rev. Mr., oral address Deacon) — Catholic deacons (similar situations and modifications apply to Anglican deacons as in The Rev. Fr., above)
  • His Highness the Aga Khan (abbreviation HH the Aga Khan., oral address Your Highness and then Sir) — The Head of the Ismalii group of Shi'ite muslims.

In monarchies

  • His/Her Imperial Majesty (abbreviation HIM, oral address Your Imperial Majesty) — Emperors and Empresses
  • His/Her Majesty (abbreviation HM, oral address Your Majesty) — Kings, Queens and Sultans
  • His/Her Imperial Highness (abbreviation HIH, oral address Your Imperial Highness) — other members of an Imperial House
  • His/Her Imperial and Royal Highness (abbreviation HI&RH, oral address Your Imperial and Royal Highness) — Archdukes of the Habsburg family, the German Crown Prince and German Crown Princess
  • His/Her Royal Highness (abbreviation HRH, oral address Your Royal Highness) — other members of a Royal House, reigning grand dukes, members of some grand ducal houses, some princes consort
  • His/Her Grand Ducal Highness (abbrevation HGDH, oral address Your Grand Ducal Highness) — junior members of some grand ducal houses
  • His/Her Highness (abbreviation HH, oral address, Your Highness) — reigning dukes and members of reigning ducal houses, members of some grand ducal houses, junior members of some royal houses, emirs and sheikhs
  • His/Her Ducal Serene Highness (abbreviation HDSH, oral address, Your Ducal Serene Highness — members of some ducal houses
  • His/Her Serene Highness (abbreviation HSH, oral address Your Serene Highness) — sovereign or mediatized Fürst ("Prince") and his family
  • His/Her Illustrious Highness (abbreviation HIllH, oral address Your Illustrious Highness) — sovereign or mediatized Count and his family
  • His/Her Excellency (abbreviation HE, oral address Your Excellency) — Governors-General

The English style Serene Highness and even more Illustrious Highness goes back to a wrong translation. These styles originally did not exist in English spoken countries.

His/Her Serene Highness = German: Seine/Ihre Durchlaucht; His/Her Illustrious Highness = German: Seine/Ihre Erlaucht; Italian: Sua Illustrissima; Spanish: Su Illustrísima

In republics

  • The President of the United States is officially forbidden to use the style "His/Her Excellency"; instead The Honorable or more commonly "Mr President" are used. Nonetheless, in an international context the President of the USA is often addressed as His Excellency.
  • The custom in France is to call office-holders acting within their official capacity "Mr" (Monsieur) or "Ms" (Madame) followed by the name of their offices. Thus, the President of the Republic is "Mr President" or "Mr President of the Republic" if a male, "Ms..." if a female; this may occasionally lead to situations when there are presidents of various bodies. Styles such as "excellency" or similar are not used, except for talking about foreign dignitaries.

In the United Kingdom

  • The Most Noble or His Grace (oral address Your Grace) — Dukes. Occasionally the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York and other Archbishops are also styled His Grace.
  • The Most Honourable (abbreviation The Most Hon.) — Marquesses
  • The Right Honourable (abbreviation The Rt Hon.) — Earls, Viscounts, Barons and members of the Privy Council
  • The Honourable (abbreviation The Hon.) — younger sons of Earls, all children of Viscounts and Barons

In legislative bodies

In Canada

  • The Right Honourable — current and former prime ministers, governors general, Chief Justices of Canada, and eminent Canadians
  • His/Her Excellency — current governor general and viceregal consort
  • His/Her Honour — provincial lieutenant governors and viceregal conort
  • His/Her Honour Judge N. — judges of provincial courts and formerly judges of district or county courts
  • The Honourable — Members of Queen's Privy Council for Canada (including federal ministers and provincial and territorial premiers)
  • The Honourable Mr/Madam Justice N. — justices of superior courts
  • The honourable member for ... — all MPs
  • His/Her Worship (oral address Your Worship) — municipal leaders.

In Australia

In the Philippines

  • His/Her Illustrious Excellency- The President of the Philippines. This is a throwback to Spanish colonial practice when the Royal Governor General of the Philippines used the same title. The full title of the current Philippine President is "Her Illustrious Excellency, The Right Honourable the President for the Republic of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo".
  • His/Her Excellency- Governors of Philippine Provinces. The full title of a Philippine Governor is "His/Her Excellency, The Honourable the Governor for the Province of X".
  • His/Her Honour- Lieutenant Governors of Provinces. The full title of a Philippine Lieutenant Governor is "His/Her Honour, The Honourable the Lieutenant Governor for the Province of X".
  • Sir/Madame- The Presidential or Gubernatorial Consort has no constitutional title, but it is common custom to address the Consort with these titles. The titles "Don" and "Doña" are used occasionally.

Local government

United States governors

Political titles used as styles

Commonwealth Prime Ministers are usually addressed just as Prime Minister, but the form of address Mr. Prime Minister is also often used in certain countries. "Mr. Prime Minister" remains a common form of address in international diplomacy, "Prime Minister" alone remains more common within domestic politics. Irish Taoisigh (prime ministers) are addressed singularly as Taoiseach. Other Irish and Commonwealth politicians tend to be addressed by their titles alone, for example "Thank you, Minister" or "Good afternoon, Senator," though "Mr." or "Madam" may also sometimes be used as a prefix, as in the United States.

In the United States and other countries politicians are frequently addressed by their title preceded by Mister or Madam depending on the gender of the holder: for example Mr. Secretary, Madam Secretary, Mr. Mayor, etc. This is generally regarded as the most formal form of address, however, and the use of titles alone, such as "Senator," "Governor," etc remains more common for day-to-day address, as is the case in most Commonwealth countries. The only exception is the President of the United States, who is almost never referred to as just "President" (although a fuller form combining title and name, such as "President Bush," is acceptable). In the United States, it is common to refer to British Prime Ministers in this style, such as "Prime Minister Blair", although this usage sounds clumsy to Britons as it is not used.

In general, the manner of addressing titled officials with the style "Mr/Madam (title)" is frequently used by members of the American media who may not be familiar with a politician's more specific honorific title (excellency, your honour, etc), but still want to show respect.

Styles existing through marriage

Styles can be acquired through marriage, though traditionally this applies more to wives of office-holders than to husbands. Thus, in the United Kingdom, The Princess Royal is styled HRH, her husband, Timothy Laurence, has no style and there would have to be a special arrangement to give him one. In contrast, when Sophie Rhys-Jones married Prince Edward, she became Princess Edward, the Countess of Wessex and automatically acquired an HRH, by virtue of her marriage to a royal prince.

This gender differentiation continues into the next generation in traditional royal families. Thus, while the sons of The Prince of Wales and the daughters of The Duke of York have HRH styles, the children of The Princess Royal have no styles. (She requested that they, like her husband, be given no courtesy titles or peerages, though they could have been: the key point is that they did not automatically receive any.)

Termination of styles

Styles can terminate when a marriage is dissolved. The late Diana, Princess of Wales held the style Her Royal Highness or HRH during her marriage to HRH The Prince of Wales. Her marital status was indicated by the title Princess of Wales. When the couple divorced, she retained her title, but lost the style, which had existed only by virtue of her marriage to a royal prince: she became instead Lady Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, Princess of Wales, reverting to the style "Lady" as the daughter of an Earl. While there was the option of awarding an HRH style to Diana, Princess of Wales in her personal capacity (which could be justified, given that she was the mother of a future king), it was decided not to award her the style. As a result, from the moment of her divorce until her death, she ceased to hold any royal style, though out of courtesy or ignorance many people still applied the style 'HRH' to her. Similarly, when Sarah, Duchess of York was divorced from her husband, HRH The Duke of York, she too lost her HRH style.

In 1936, Wallis Simpson was not given the HRH style by King George VI when she married his brother, the former King Edward VIII, by then known as HRH The Duke of Windsor. There was no precedent for a divorced woman marrying a member of the royal family and it was feared that, if the couple divorced (she had already divorced two husbands) she would lose the style but could conceivably still try to use it anyway, undermining its status.

The names of some offices are also titles, which are retained by the office holder for life. For example, in Finland, the President of the Republic from 1994 to 2000, Martti Ahtisaari, retains the title "President", and is called "President Ahtisaari", in contrast to the current President of the Republic Tarja Halonen.

Former styles

All former monarchies had styles, some, as in the Bourbon monarchy of France, extremely complicated depending on the status of the office or office-holder. Otto von Habsburg, who was Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary (1916-1918), had the style 'His Imperial and Royal Highness'. He was last addressed as such by church figures during the funeral of his late mother, Empress-Queen Zita of Austria-Hungary in 1989, although the use of these styles has been prohibited in Austria since 1920.[1]

Styles and titles of deposed monarchs

General tradition indicates that where a monarch has been deposed but has not abdicated, they retain the use of their style and title for the duration of their lifetime, but both die with them. Hence Greece's deposed king is still technically His Majesty King Constantine II of the Hellenes, as a personal title, not a constitutional office, since the abolition of the monarchy by the Hellenic Republic in 1974. Similarly, until his death the last King of Italy, King Umberto II, was technically entitled to be called His Majesty the King of Italy or Your Majesty. In contrast, the ex-King Michael I of Romania, who abdicated his throne in 1947, technically lost the use of his title, though out of politeness, he may still be called His Majesty King Michael or Your Majesty.

While this rule is generally observed, and indeed some exiled monarchs are allowed diplomatic passports by their former state, other states take offence at the use of such titles. The current Hellenic Republic has long challenged King Constantine's right to use his title; in 1981, the then Greek President Constantine Karamanlis declined to attend the wedding of the Prince of Wales when it was revealed that Greece's deposed monarch, a friend of the Prince, had been referred to as 'King' in his invitation. However, King Constanine now travels in and out of Greece without any problems, on a Danish royal passport (as "King Constantine of Greece"), and has done so several times in the past few years. Because of the Schengen agreements the Greek government cannot refuse him entry.

Other parallel symbols

Styles were often among the range of symbols that surrounded figures of high office. Everything from the manner of address to the behaviour of a person on meeting that personage was surrounded by traditional symbols. Monarchs were to be bowed to by men and curtsied to by women. Senior clergy, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church, were to have their rings (the symbol of their authority) kissed by lay persons while they were on bended knee, while cardinals in an act of homage at the papal coronation were meant to kiss the feet of the Supreme Pontiff, the Pope.

Many of these traditions have lapsed or been partially abandoned. At his inauguration as pope in 1978 (itself the abandonment of the traditional millennium-old papal coronation), Pope John Paul II himself kissed cardinals on the cheeks, rather than follow the traditional method of homage of having his feet kissed. Curtsies have for many years been no longer obligatory when meeting members of the British Royal Family; indeed some royals positively hate being curtsied to. One described the experience of a row of curtsying women, bobbing up and down, as leaving them 'sea-sick'. (Curiously, Americans seem more attached to the curtsying to British royalty than most British people.)

Similarly, styles, though still used, are used less often. The current President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, is usually referred to as President Mary McAleese, not President McAleese, as had been the form used for the first six presidents, from President Hyde to President Hillery. Tony Blair asked initially to be called Tony. In a break with tradition, though as the second in line to the throne and a son of a royal prince, Prince William of Wales formally has a HRH style, he chose while at university not to use it. The United States has become one of the most informal countries in the world, with styles such as Excellency now largely abandoned or ignored, even by those who legally have them. First names, or even nicknames, are often widely used among politicians in the US, even in formal situations (as an extreme example, President James Earl "Jimmy" Carter choose to take the Oath of Office using his nickname). One notable exception involves judges: a judge of any court is almost invariably addressed as "Your Honor" while presiding over his or her court, and often at other times as well.

However, styles are still widely used in formal documents and correspondence between heads of state, such as in a Letter of Credence accrediting an ambassador from one head of state to another.

Self-styled

The term self-styled roughly means awarding a style to yourself, often without adequate justification or authority. However, often people style themselves with titles, rather than true styles.

See also

Footnote

1 Though Republic of Ireland does not possess a Privy Council, the style is still used. The Lord Mayor of Dublin is still styled the Right Honourable, as previous lord mayors of Dublin were ex-officio members of the former Irish Privy Council until its abolition in 1922.

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