Serene Highness
His/Her Serene Highness (
In a number of older
German-speaking lands
The current, legal usage of the style in the German-speaking countries is confined to the
The German term is Durchlaucht, a translation of the
In 1375, Emperor
In 1905, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria granted the style of Durchlaucht to members of virtually every family which had held the title of prince in the former Holy Roman Empire, even if the family had never exercised sovereignty.
In the German and Austrian empires of the 19th and 20th centuries, the style Serene Highness was also officially borne by:
- Cadet branches of the sovereign Ernestine dukes (i.e., Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha);[1]
- Reigning Fürsten of the small German realms which survived the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire;[2]
- Hohenzollern (yielded sovereignty to Hohenzollern kinsman, the King of Prussia, in 1848)
- Lippe
- Reuss
- Schaumburg-Lippe
- Schwarzburg
- Waldeck and Pyrmont
- Mediatised princes (e.g., Fürstenberg, Hohenlohe, Leiningen, Thurn und Taxis) and dukes (e.g., Ratibor), and, eventually, their family members;
- Morganatic princes, descended from reigning dynasties;
- Other non-reigning princes of the ).
By tradition, Durchlaucht is still attributed to the princely dynasties which were sovereign until 1917 or had been mediatised under the
N.B. The highest form of durchlauchtig (adjective) was allerdurchlauchtigst (absolutely most serene), which was reserved only to the Emperor in his style of address: Allerdurchlauchtigster Großmächtigster Allergnädigster Kaiser und Herr
Persian culture
The specialized translation of His Serene Highness would be the hereditary title "Hazrat Ishaan" (حضرت ايشان) which is a title exclusively granted to
Francophone dominions
There is some evidence that in pre-Revolutionary France, unlike Germany, one entitled to be addressed as Serene Highness was considered to outrank someone who was addressed as merely Highness. Those members of the royal family who weren't children or grandchildren of a king, i.e., the
The reigning
Italy
In the
Children of the Savoy kings and crown princes of Italy were entitled to the treatment of Royal Highness, but more remote male-line descendants were Serene Highnesses by right (although often the style of Royal Highness was granted to them ad personam, e.g., the Dukes of Aosta or the Dukes of Genoa).[6]
The mediatised House of Thurn and Taxis, entitled to the Serene Highness treatment in the German Empire, has a non-dynastic cadet branch, the Dukes di Castel Duino, which obtained naturalization in Italy in 1923. When incorporated into the Italian nobility, their use of the Serene Highness style was authorised by the Crown.
San Marino
San Marino is styled as the Most Serene Republic.
Poland
In the First Republic of Poland (1569-1795), also called "the Most Serene Republic of Poland" (Najjaśniejsza Rzeczpospolita Polska), His/Her Serene Reigning Majesty (SRM) was a style used by the reigning monarchs.
Russia
After 1886, great-grandchildren of Russian emperors in the male-line were Prince[ss] of Russia, and were to be granted the treatment of Highness, and Prince[ss] of Russia with the style of Serene Highness if being more distantly descended from an emperor, and born from an equal marriage (as opposed to Morganatic marriage). An exception was for each eldest son of senior imperial great-grandsons (in the patrilineal descent of each son of the emperor), who retained the higher style of Highness.[7] During the Russian Empire, noble principalities of Khimshiashvili and Palavandishvili, whose titles was recognized by the Romanov family (whose origins are Georgian, Armenian, Ancient Roman), also used the title "Serene Highness"
The Khimshiashvili family is descended from a lord titled Magister Equitum (Master of the Horse) who settled in Georgia during the Caucasus campaign of the Roman great commander Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in 65 BC
Strictly, the Russian term, Svetlost, was an
United Kingdom
Several morganatic branches of reigning German dynasties took up residence in the
During
Belgium
The following titleholders or families are authorised by the Crown to use the style Serene Highness[10] (French: Altesse Sérénissime, Dutch: Doorluchtige Hoogheid)
- Dukes and princes of Arenberg
- Dukes of Beaufort-Spontin
- Dukes and princes of Croÿ
- Princes of Habsburg-Lorraine (archducal cadets resident in Belgium)
- Princes of Lobkowicz(resident in Belgium)
- Dukes and princes of Looz-Corswarem
- Princes of Stolberg-Stolberg
- Prince of Waterloo
Hungary
Before 1947, the style His/Her Serene Highness (Őfőméltósága, literally: "His/Her High Dignity") was in use in Hungary. Peers with the title of prince were entitled to it, and between 1920 and 1944 the regent, Miklós Horthy, was styled as His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (Őfőméltósága, a Magyar Királyság kormányzója).
Portugal
As the most powerful noble family in
Mexico
From 1853 to 1855 the president of
Spain
In 1807,
The honorific (Spanish: El Serenísimo Señor) is one of the styles of the infantes.
Thailand
In Thailand, the title of Serene Highness is the westernized style of the Thai title of
See also
- Style (manner of address)
- Most Serene Republic
- SAS (novel series), named after Son Altesse Sérénissime, French version of the honorific.
Notes
- ^ Almanach de Gotha (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pages 111-113, 115
- ^ Almanach de Gotha (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pages 73, 94, 97, 98, 121, 124, 126
- ^ Tazkare Khwanadane Hazrat Eshan(genealogy of the family of Hazrat Eshan)(by author and investigator:Muhammad Yasin Qasvari Naqshbandi company:Edara Talimat Naqshbandiyya Lahore)p. 54
- ^ a b Velde, François. "Royal Styles and the uses of "Highness"". Heraldica.org. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
- ^ Spanheim, Ézéchiel (1973). Émile Bourgeois (ed.). Relation de la Cour de France. le Temps retrouvé (in French). Paris: Mercure de France. pp. 107–108.
- ^ Christoph Franke, ed. (1997). Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels Fürstliche Häuser Band XV (in German). Limburg an der Lahn: C. A. Starke. pp. 33–41.
- ^ Almanach de Gotha (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), page 104
- ^ Almanach de Gotha (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pages 49
- ^ ISBN 0-220-66222-3.
- ^ Almanach de Gotha (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pages 170,190,248,372.
- ^ Monitorio áulico By Pascual Maria Massa Martinez (baron del Pujol de Planes.)