Imperial and Royal Highness (in German:Kaiserliche und königliche Hoheit) is a style possessed by someone who either through birth or marriage holds two individual styles, Imperial Highness and Royal Highness. The style is used by members of the Habsburg dynasty who use the titles Prince Imperial and Archduke of Austria and Prince Royal of Bohemia and Hungary. One contemporary example of this is Prince Lorenz, Archduke of Austria-Este and his children who are members of the Belgian Royal Family and of the Austrian Imperial Family at the same time. The style was also used by the eldest son of the German Emperor who was Crown Prince of the German Empire and Crown Prince of Prussia. It is still used by the Head of the House of Hohenzollern.

IMPERIAL HIGHNESS

His/Her Imperial Highness (abbreviation HIH) is a style used by members of an imperial family to denote imperial - as opposed to royal - status to show that the holder in question is descended from an Emperor rather than a King (compare His/Her Royal Highness). It generally outranks all other single styles.

In the British monarchy the style of HRH is associated with the rank of prince or princess (although this has not always applied, the notable exception being Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was given the style of HRH in 1947 but was not created a prince until 1958). This is especially important when a prince has another title such as Duke (or a princess the title of Duchess) by which he or she would usually be addressed. For instance HRH The Duke of Connaught was a prince and a member of the royal family while His Grace The Duke of Devonshire is a non-royal duke and not a member of the British Royal Family. The Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of The Earl of Wessex, is legally Her Royal Highness Princess Louise of Wessex but it was decided by her parents that she be styled as the daughter of an earl and not Her Royal Highness. This however is debatable as The Duke of York's daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie enjoy the style Her Royal Highness. In the United Kingdom, a Letter patent issued on 28 August 1996 states that a style received by a spouse of a member of the Royal Family on their marriage ceases at the point of divorce. For that reason Diana Spencer, when she and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales divorced, ceased to be HRH.

PRINCELY HIGHNESS

His/Her Grand Ducal Highness (acronym: HGDH) is a style of address used before the princely titles of the non-reigning members of some German ruling families headed by a Grand Duke. No currently reigning family employs the style, although it was used most recently by the younger sisters of the late Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg. Since Grand Duchess Charlotte's marriage to Prince Felix of Parma, all of their male-line descendants have used the style Royal Highness.

A reigning Grand Duke, his heir apparent, and their spouses would use the style of Royal Highness. The male line descendants of a reigning Grand Duke, other than the heir, would use the style Grand Ducal Highness. This practice was followed by the ruling families of Luxembourg, Hesse and by Rhine, and Baden. Other grand ducal families either existed before this system developed or were controlled by different rules. At present, the style is used only by the former ruling family of Baden, as the Hessian grand ducal family has become extinct.

Russian Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses were the children or grandchildren of the Emperor and used the style Imperial Highness. The Grand Dukes of Tuscany used the style Royal Highness for themselves but it is not clear what style other members of the family would have used in the absence of the Austro-Hungarian styles. By the time the system of different classes of Highness came into regular use for the relatives of rulers (in the nineteenth century), the Grand Dukes of Tuscany were also members of the House of Austria. As such, they had the title of Archduke and used the style Imperial and Royal Highness. In most of Europe, the style of Grand Ducal Highness was considered to be lower in rank than Royal Highness, and Imperial Highness, but higher in rank than Highness and Serene Highness. If a woman with the rank of Royal Highness married a man with the rank Grand Ducal Highness, the woman would usually retain her pre-marital style. Also, if a woman with the rank of Grand Ducal Highness married a man with the rank of Serene Highness, she would keep her pre-marital style.

EXALTED HIGHNESS

Highness, often used with a personal possessive pronoun (His/Her/Your Highness, the first two abbreviated HH) is an attribute referring to the rank of the dynasty (such as Royal Highness, Imperial Highness) in an address. It is literally the quality of being lofty or high, a term and style used, as are so many abstractions, as a style of dignity and honor, to signify exalted rank or station.

Abstract styles arose in great profusion in the Roman Empire, especially in the Byzantine continuation. Currently such styles can be subject to confusion, as their meaning was affected by inflation and devaluation, but at any given time they were rather rigidly ruled by imperial commands, rendering the official hierarchy of offices; for example at the time of the Notitia dignitatum, the highest offices were grouped in classes, each awarded a characteristic title on top of every functional one, the highest being Illustris, next Spectabilis, et cetera. Like other exorbitant and swelling attributes of the time, the higher styles were conferred on imperial and ruling foreign princes generally as well as attached to various offices at court and/or in the state (military, financial, judiciary and various other, often combined, central and provincial administrations), clarifying the protocollary hierarchy (often deviating from the political reality, though). In the early Middle Ages such styles, couched in the second or third person, were uncertain and much more arbitrary, and were more subject to the fancies of secretaries than in later times (Selden, Titles of Honor, part I, Ch. vii. 100).

In English usage, the terms Highness, Grace (which is not used exclusively for the sovereign), and Majesty, were all used as honorific styles of Kings and Queens until the time of James I of England. Thus in documents relating to the reign of Henry VIII of England, all three styles are used indiscriminately; an example is the King's judgment against Dr Edward Crome (d. f562), quoted, from the Lord Chamberlains' books, ser. I, p. 791, in Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. N.S. lOX. 299, where article 15 begins with Also the Kinges Highness hath ordered, 16 with Kinges Majestie, and 17 with Kinges Grace. In the Dedication of the Authorized Version of the Bible of 1611, James I is still styled Majesty and Highness; thus, in the first paragraph, the appearance of Your Majesty, as of the Sun in his strength, instantly dispelled those supposed and surmised mists ... especially when we beheld the government established in Your Highness and Your hopeful Seed, by an undoubted title. It was, however, in James I's reign that Majesty became the official style. It may be noted that Oliver Cromwell, as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and his wife, were styled Highness, which is unusual for a republic.

In present usage the following members of the British Royal Family normally have the right to be addressed as Royal Highness (HRH, His or Her Royal Highness): The children of past and present Sovereigns, the grandchildren in the male-line and the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales (decree of 31 May 1898). A change of sovereign does not entail the forfeiture of the style of Royal Highness. However, the sovereign has the right to grant or revoke the style of HRH and other titles (e.g., Princess Royal).

As a general rule, the members of the blood royal of an Imperial or Royal house are addressed as Imperial or Royal Highness (French Altesse Imperiale, Altesse Royale; German Kaiserliche Hoheit, Königliche Hoheit etc.) respectively.

In Germany, Austria (and other former parts of the Holy Roman Empire) the reigning heads of the Grand Duchies bear the title of Royal Highness (Königliche Hoheit), while other members of the family are simply addressed as Grand Ducal Highness or Highness (Großherzogliche Hoheit or Hoheit). Hoheit is borne by the reigning dukes and the princes and princesses of their families.

The style Serene Highness has also an antiquity equal to that of highness, and were titles borne by the Byzantine rulers, and serenitas and serenissimus by the Emperors Honorius and Arcadius. The Doge of Venice was also styled Serenissimus (Latin 'Most Serene'), the crowned republic and the (later Austrian, then Italian) city itself remain widely known as (la) Serenissima. Selden (op. cit. part II. ch. X. 739) calls this style one of the greatest that can be given "to any Prince that hath not the superior title of King". In modern times Serene Highness (Altesse Sérénissime) is used as the equivalent of the German Durchlaucht, a stronger form of Erlaucht, illustrious, represented in the Latin honorific superillustris- Thackerays burlesque title Transparency in the ficticious court at Pumpernickel very accurately gives the meaning. The style of Durchlaucht was granted in 1375 by the Emperor Charles IV to the electoral princes (Kurfürsten), the highest rank under the Roman Emperor).

In the 17th century it became the general style borne by the heads of the reigning princely states of the empire (reichstandische Fürsten), as Erlaucht by those of the countly houses (reichstandische Grafen, i.e. Counts of the Empire). In 1825 the Imperial German Diet agreed to grant the style Durchlaucht to the heads of all mediatized princely houses domiciled in Germany or Austria, and it is now customary to use it of the members of those houses. Further, all those who are elevated to the rank of Fürst (prince in the *secondary meaning of that title) are also styled Durchlaucht. In 1829 the style of Erlaucht, which had formerly been borne by the reigning Counts of the empire, was similarly granted to the mediatized countly families (Almanach de Gotha, 1909, 107).

His Highness, often abbreviated HH, is a style for members of ducal families, some grand ducal families, and lesser members of some royal families. The third case is the only usage of the style that is still used officially. However, socially, many formerly-reigning ducal and grand ducal families assume the style HH, but this is only used socially and they are not normally referred to as such in any official capacity.

Serene Highness ( acronym HSH ) - His Serene Highness or Her Serene Highness. The style of HSH appeared at the front of the princely titles of members of German ruling families. The style is also used today by the ruling families of Monaco and Liechtenstein. The style Serene Highness was mainly used by the mediatized Dukes, reigning and mediatized Fürsten ("Princes"), and the children and grandchildren of the reigning or mediatized Dukes and Fürsten, of the small German states that survived after the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. It was also given to several morganatic branches of German ruling family. Queen Mary, the consort of King George V used the style Her Serene Highness as a Princess of Teck. (The dukes and princes of Teck were a branch of the Royal House of Württemberg). In the Republic of Venice, also called the Serene Republic, the Doge was known as "Serenissimus".

In most of Europe, the style of Serene Highness was considered to be lower in rank than Highness, Grand Ducal Highness, Royal Highness, and Imperial Highness. If a woman with the rank of Royal Highness married a man with the rank Serene Highness, the woman would usually retain her pre-marital style. Queen Victoria did however create those German princes and dukes who married her daughters Royal Highnesses.

In Germany, the styled used is Durchlaucht, a translation for the Latin superillustris. This is usually translated into English as Serene Highness, however, it would be more correct to translate it as superior to, above, beyond or greater than famous. In a number of Old English dictionaries, serene as used in this context means supreme, royal, august, or marked by majestic dignity or grandeur or high or supremely dignified. The style Serene Highness has an antiquity equal to that of highness. However, is some, excluding the Latin speaking countries, Highness outranks a Serene Highness. In 1905 the Emperor Wilhelm II granted the high Durchlaucht title to virtually every prince in the former Holy Roman Empire, even if they had never been sovereign. During World War I, King George V revoked the style Serene Highness for use by those members of the British Royal Family who were British subjects. The official current usage of the style in the German-speaking countries is by the princely house of Liechtenstein, the entirety of which bears the style, and other higher Germanic states. It is used officially by these.

ILLUSTRIOUS HIGHNESS

EMINENCE

His Eminence is a historical style of address for high nobility, still in useas a style of reference to the cardinalate of the Roman Catholic Church. The style remains in use as the official style or standard of address in reference to a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, reflecting his status as a Prince of the Church, ecclesiastically outranking Archbishops and even Patriarchs. A longer, and more formal, title is "His (or Your when addressing the cardinal directly) Most Reverend Eminence". [a] The style for cardinals of noble birth is His Most Illustrious and Reverend Eminence. While the term is shunned by many individuals of other faiths denominations of Christianity, the title is officially maintained in international diplomacy without regard for its doctrinal, philosophical and theological origins.

When the Grand Master of the Military Order of the Knights of Malta, the Head of state of their sovereign territorial state comprising the island of Malta until 1797, who had already been made a Reichsfürst (i.e. Prince of the Holy Roman Empire) in 1607, was granted ecclesiastical equality with the Cardinals in 1630, he was also awarded the hybrid style His Most Eminent Highness.

EXCELLENCY

Holy Roman Empire - On 25 December , 800, Charles I, King of the Franks, was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome. This was seen as a revival of the Western Empire, and descendants of Charlemagne continued to be crowned in Rome through the 9th century. The increasing divisions within the Frankish lands, however, led to a suspension of the office. In 962, Otto I, King of the Eastern Franks ( or Germany ) was again crowned Emperor by the Pope. His successors became known as Holy Roman Emperors. The Holy Roman Empire, such as it was, consisted of the Kingdoms of Germany, Italy, and Burgundy. After the 13th century and the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the universalistic aspirations of the Emperors became increasingly theoretical, and their control over Italy, still seen as the locus of the proper empire, became increasingly tenuous. Rather than being hereditary, emperors were elected by the great German magnates, in a process codified by the Golden Bull of 1356. Coronations in Rome became rarer and rarer, until in 1508, King Maximilian I declared himself Emperor Elect without having been crowned in Rome. Although Maximilian's grandson and successor, Charles V, was crowned in Bologna in 1529 by the Pope, he was the last, and thereafter the position of Holy Roman Emperor was a wholly German post until the Empire's dissolution in August 6, 1806. Even in Germany itself, real control was increasingly tenuous, as various local princes put increasing amounts of power into his own hands, so that the Habsburg emperors who ruled almost continuously from 1438 until the end of the empire derived their power much more from their hereditary lands in the eastern part of the monarchy than from their position as emperor. This became even more true after the defeat of Habsburg attempts to reassert authority over the Empire in the Thirty Years War, which ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The impotence of the Emperors' position became most nakedly apparent during the brief reign of Charles VII from 1742 to 1745. As Duke of Bavaria, Charles was the only non-Habsburg emperor for the last three hundred fifty years of the empire's existence, and his utter inability even to protect his own hereditary lands from the forces of his enemy, Maria Theresa, the Habsburg heiress, showed how empty the position of Holy Roman Emperor had become. The conquests of the French revolutionary armies in the 1790s made the Empire itself untenable, so that Emperor Francis II in 1804 took the title of Emperor of Austria as Francis I , and ultimately, allowed ( illegally) the dissolution of the Empire two years later.

Bulgaria - In 913, Bulgarian king Simeon I crowned himself "Emperor and Autocrat of all the Bulgars and Greeks" following a victory over the Byzantines. His successors held on to the title Tsar until 1396 when Bulgaria fell to the invading Ottoman Empire. The title was revived between 1908 and 1946. Simeon II, the last tsar, abdicated and the monarchy was abolished.

Spain - King Sancho III of Navarre declared himself emperor of Spain in 1034. His son, Ferdinand I of Castile also took the title in 1039. His son, Alfonso VI of Castile Leon took the title in 1077. His grandson, Alfonso VII crowned himself in 1135. The title was not hereditary but self proclaimations.

Serbia - After a series of victories against his neighbors, Serbian king Stefan Uros IV proclaimed himself "Tsar and Autocrat of Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians" in 1346. His son, Stefan Uros V, was unable to retain the empire. After his death in 1371, no Serb monarch would use the title Tsar.

Russia - The exclusivity of the title Emperor in Europe was lost on 31 October , 1721 when, at the request of his jubilant Senate and the Holy Synod, the recent victor of the 21 year long Great Northern War Peter I ("Peter the Great") proclaimed the establishment of the Russian Empire and accepted the title Emperor of Russia in addition to the traditional (since 1547) title of Tsar of several diverse nationalities in their specific lands. He based his claim partially upon a letter discovered in 1717 written in 1514 from Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor to Vasili III, Grand Duke of Moscow, in which the Holy Roman Emperor used the term in referring to Vasily. The title has not been used in Russia since the consecutive abdications of Emperor Saint Nicholas II and his brother Grand Duke Michael on March 15 and 16, 1917.

France - Napoleon I declared himself Emperor of the French on 18 May , 1804. He relinquished the title of Emperor of the French on 6 April and again on April 11, 1814, but was allowed to style himself Emperor of Elba, the island of his first exile. After his attempted restoration and defeat in 1815 he was stripped of even that usage during his second exile. His nephew Napoleon III resurrected the title on December_2, 1852 after establishing the Second French Empire in a Coup d'état, and lost it when he was deposed on September_4, 1870 by the Third Republic. It has not been used in France since then.

Austria - On 11 August , 1804 anticipating the eventual collapse of the Holy Roman Empire (the "First Reich") at the behest of Napoleon I, Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire assumed the additional title of Emperor of Austria ( as Francis I thereof ). The precaution was a wise one, because two years later on August 6 1806 he was obliged to proclaim the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. The title has not been used in Austria since Emperor Karl of Austria "relinquished every participation in the administration of the State" on November_11 1918.