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Princess is a title used by a female member of a monarch's family or by a female ruler. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin princeps , meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a monarch. A crown princess can be the heiress apparent to the throne or the spouse of the heir apparent.
Some princesses are reigning monarchs of principalities. There have been fewer instances of reigning princesses than reigning princes, as most principalities excluded women from inheriting the throne. An example of a princess regnant is Constance of Antioch, princess regnant of Antioch in the 12th century. [3] Since the president of France, an office for which women are eligible, is ex-officio a co-prince of Andorra, then Andorra could theoretically be jointly ruled by a princess.
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For many centuries, the title "princess" was not regularly used for a monarch's daughter, who, in English, might simply be called "Lady". Old English had no female equivalent of "prince", "earl", or any other royal or noble title aside from queen. Royal women were simply addressed or referred to as "The Lady [Firstname]". For example, Mary and Elizabeth, daughters of Henry VIII of England, were often simply referred to as "the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth". [4] This practice, however, was not consistent. In the marriage contract between Prince George of Denmark and Anne, daughter of James II of England, Anne is referred to as "The Princess Anne". [5]
Practice in Britain began to change in the 18th century. After the accession of King George I to the British throne, the children, grandchildren, and male-line great-grandchildren of the British sovereign were automatically titled "Prince or Princess of Great Britain and Ireland" and styled "Royal Highness" (in the case of children and grandchildren) or "Highness" (in the case of male line great-grandchildren). Queen Victoria confirmed this practice in letters patent dated 30 January 1864 (the first Act of the Prerogative dealing with the princely title in general terms). On 31 December 2012, Queen Elizabeth II issued letters patent enabling all children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales to enjoy the princely title and style of "Royal Highness", as opposed to only the eldest son. [6] [7]
In European countries, a woman who marries a prince will almost always become a princess, but a man who marries a princess will almost never become a prince, unless specifically created so. From 1301 onward, the eldest sons of the kings of England (and later Great Britain and the United Kingdom) have generally been created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and their wives have been titled Princess of Wales. [8]
Queen Elizabeth II issued letters patent dated 21 August 1996, stating that any woman divorced from a Prince of the United Kingdom would no longer be entitled to the style "Royal Highness". This has so far applied to Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah, Duchess of York. Similarly, in Denmark, Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, lost her status as princess upon her second marriage after divorcing Prince Joachim of Denmark (Danish : Grevinde af Frederiksborg). [9]
In Norway, Sonja Haraldsen was originally a commoner who on 29 August 1968 became a crown princess when she married Crown Prince Harald of Norway (Norwegian : Kronprins Harald av Norge). [10] Both of them later became the king and queen of Norway in 1991.
In some cases, "princess" is used as a term of endearment to express love for a woman. For example, throughout the 1997 film Life Is Beautiful the protagonist Guido calls his beloved Dora "principessa", Italian for "princess".
Harald V is King of Norway. He succeeded to the throne on 17 January 1991.
Sonja is Queen of Norway as the wife of King Harald V.
The line of succession to the Norwegian throne consists of people entitled to become head of state of Norway.
Maud of Wales was Queen of Norway as the wife of King Haakon VII. The youngest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, she was known as Princess Maud of Wales before her marriage, as her father was the Prince of Wales at the time.
Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner is the second daughter of King Olav V and his wife, Princess Märtha of Sweden. She is the older sister of King Harald V of Norway and younger sister of the late Princess Ragnhild.
Maud Angelica Behn is a member of the Norwegian royal family, however, she is a private citizen and holds no royal title. She is the firstborn child of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and her late husband Ari Behn, and the eldest grandchild of King Harald V of Norway and Queen Sonja.
Royal Highness is a style used to address or refer to some members of royal families, usually princes or princesses. Kings and their female consorts, as well as queens regnant, are usually styled Majesty.
Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a royal title normally granted to sons and grandsons of reigning and past British monarchs, together with consorts of female monarchs. The title is granted by the reigning monarch, who is the fount of all honours, through the issuing of letters patent as an expression of the royal will.
The use of the title of Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is entirely at the will of the sovereign, and is now expressed in letters patent. Individuals holding the title of princess are styled "Her Royal Highness" (HRH). The current letters patent were issued in 1917 during the First World War, with one extension in 2012.
A queen regnant is a female monarch, equivalent in rank, title and position to a king. She reigns suo jure over a realm known as a kingdom; as opposed to a queen consort, who is married to a reigning king; or a queen regent, who is the guardian of a child monarch and rules pro tempore in the child's stead or instead of her husband who is absent from the realm, be it de jure in sharing power or de facto in ruling alone. A queen regnant is sometimes called a woman king. A princess regnant is a female monarch who reigns suo jure over a principality; an empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns suo jure over an empire.
The Danish royal family is the dynastic family of the monarch of Denmark. While some members of the Danish royal family hold the title of Prince(ss) of Denmark, descendants of Margrethe II additionally bear the title Count(ess) of Monpezat. Children of the monarch are accorded the style of His/Her Royal Highness. The King and Queen are styled Majesty.
Members of the Norwegian royal family are people related to King Harald V of Norway or former Norwegian monarchs. The current family who holds the throne are members of the House of Glücksburg who ascended to the Norwegian throne after the election of Prince Carl of Denmark as King of Norway during the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union in 1905.
The royal descendants of Queen Victoria and of King Christian IX, monarchs of the United Kingdom (1837–1901) and Denmark (1863–1906) respectively, currently occupy the thrones of Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of the First World War their grandchildren occupied the thrones of Denmark, Greece, Norway, Germany, Romania, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom. For this reason Victoria was nicknamed the "grandmother of Europe" and Christian IX the "father-in-law of Europe".
Queen Victoria, the British monarch from 1837 to 1901, and Prince Albert had 9 children, 42 grandchildren, and 87 great-grandchildren. Victoria was called the "grandmother of Europe".
In the British peerage, a royal duke is a member of the British royal family, entitled to the titular dignity of prince and the style of His Royal Highness, who holds a dukedom. Dukedoms are the highest titles in the British roll of peerage, and the holders of these particular dukedoms are princes of the blood royal. The holders of the dukedoms are royal, not the titles themselves. They are titles created and bestowed on legitimate sons and male-line grandsons of the British monarch, usually upon reaching their majority or marriage. The titles can be inherited but cease to be called "royal" once they pass beyond the grandsons of a monarch. As with any peerage, once the title becomes extinct, it may subsequently be recreated by the reigning monarch at any time.
The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark was already consolidated in the 8th century, whose rulers are consistently referred to in Frankish sources as "kings". Under the rule of King Gudfred in 804 the Kingdom may have included all the major provinces of medieval Denmark.
The wedding of Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway and Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby took place on 25 August 2001 at Oslo Cathedral. It was the first royal wedding to take place in Norway since the marriage of then-Crown Prince Harald to Sonja Haraldsen in 1968. Because of the background of the bride, the wedding was frequently referred to in publications as "unconventional" and "uncommon," and Mette-Marit as a modern-day Cinderella.
Since William the Conqueror claimed the English throne, succession has been determined by bequest, battle, primogeniture, and parliament.
The wedding of Harald, Crown Prince of Norway, and Sonja Haraldsen took place on Thursday, 29 August 1968, at Oslo Cathedral. The wedding was the culmination of a nine-year courtship as King Olav V, Harald's father, was reluctant to permit his son and heir to marry a commoner.
