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Your Royal Highness


Royal Highness (abbreviation HRH) is a style used to address or refer to some members of royal families, usually princes other than monarchs and their female consorts (i.e., kings and queens). When used as a direct form of address, spoken or written, it takes the form "Your Royal Highness". When used as a third-person reference, it is gender-specific (His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness, both abbreviated HRH) and, in plural, Their Royal Highnesses (TRH).

Holders of the style Royal Highness generally rank below holders of the style Imperial Highness, but above those addressed as Grand Ducal Highness, Highness, Serene Highness and some other styles.

By the 17th century, all local rulers in Italy adopted the style Highness, that was once used by kings and emperors only. According to Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, the style of Royal Highness was created on the insistence of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Cardinal-Infante of Spain, a younger son of King Philip III of Spain. The Archduke was travelling through Italy on his way to the Low Countries and, upon meeting Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, refused to address him as Highness unless the Duke addressed him as Royal Highness. Thus, the first use of the style Royal Highness was recorded in 1633. Gaston, Duke of Orléans, younger son of King Henry IV of France, encountered the style in Brussels and assumed it himself. His children later used the style, considering it their prerogative as grandchildren of France.


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