Writing Advice: "Your Highness" versus "Your Majesty" · 7:32am Feb 13th, 2016
One thing I see a lot of writers do: confuse "Your Highness" and "Your Majesty" as interchangeable terms.
For the most part, they're not.
It isn't just fanfic writers that make this mistake; the show writers occasionally flub this too.
Making this as short and sweet as possible: only the ruling sovereign monarch is addressed as Your Majesty. Any and all other royals are "Your Highness".
Twilight Sparkle would NEVER be referred to as "Your Majesty".
Princess Cadance would--but only in the Crystal Empire. Everywhere else, the proper address is "Your Highness".
Celestia and Luna are an interesting case. Technically, they are diarchs. However, in practice, Celestia is the unquestionable High Ruler of Equestria. Therefore, only Celestia would be called "Your Majesty", while Luna would be called "Your Highness" at all times.
HOWEVER, since Celestia is a Princess and not a Queen, calling her "Your Highness" is also technically and formally correct.
TL;DR version: Celestia is "Your Majesty", Cadance is "Your Majesty" only in the Crystal Empire, and all four Princesses are "Your Highness"; Luna and Twilight are never "Your Majesty".
Though I've never run into this problem myself, this was information I hadn't previously known. Thanks, Myth.
Actually, Kings and Queens are both Your Majesty, and since Celestia and Luna are supposed to rule as a pair, politically speaking they should both be addressed the same way, whether Your Majesty or Your Highness, depending on their preference.
The more you know. Thanks for this. One more mistake I can avoid when writing.
3751211 The key word is supposed to. That little 1,000 year time out Luna had kinda changed things, and let's face it, Celestia rules Equestria. Luna just covers the night shift.
Not sure about that one.
I think both can be addressed as "Your Majesty", since I'm sure both Luna and Celestia would claim they are equal.
3751223
But titles aren't about what things really are. They're about what politics and etiquette dictate. And regardless of what Luna's actual authority and power are, politically she's Celestia's equal (if for no other reason than "because Celestia says so"), and so etiquette dictates she be addressed the same way as Celestia.
After all, if titles were about actual authority, he'd be called Ponce Blueblood.
3751229 True. Still, it depends on what the citizenry of Equestria think about the whole thing, too.
Good advice. I went back to my Sisters in All but Blood to check out if it conformed. It seems I understood the distinction, though I wonder if a crown regent, in this case Twilight Sparkle appointed by Celestia before she disappears, would still be Your Highness or might become Your Majesty in the absence of any monarch.
Finding correct terms of address for dukes and lesser aristocracy can be a pain, but it is always good to do your best to get it right. Thanks for the post. Very informative.
I dimly recall reading a treatise on royal title usage while doing some campaign setting research, and one of the bits that stood out (though its been years, and I can't recall the specifics) regarding the use of "Majesty" and "Highness" is whether they're your monarchs or someone else's; If they're your leaders, you use one form of address, if they're not yours, you use another. And it's considered a pretty serious breach of protocol to get it wrong.
I understand where you're coming from, but I can't help but imagine a Canterlot etiquette coach implicitly explaining how Luna is less important than her sister, only to turn around and see Celestia staring him down.
"Y-Your Majesty!"
"Heard you were talking shit about Luna."
(I kid, of course.
Though I do like the mental image.)
Well, I'll be damned. Good to know. Goes to show you do learn something new every day.
I wonder if Twilight is 'Your Majesty' only in her front garden, and only by her garden gnomes?
When I personally use them it goes like this.
Your majesty = King
Your Highness = Queen, Prince or Princess
Huh, okay. That was something I did not know. Thanks Mythril.
Huh. I didn't know that. Not like any of your readers are going to call you out on getting it wrong though. In this context it might make more sense to just use whichever one sounds better in your story, because modern English does treat them interchangeably even if they really shouldn't be. But I will remember that if I ever run into any royalty, like the Queen of England or something.
I've noticed that I tend to disagree with everything you say to some degree, sorry about that.
I'm actually not 100% sure you're correct on this one, Moth. If I remember correctly, my history teacher told us that 'Majesty' would only refer to the reigning king or queen whereas 'Highness' was reserved for princes and princesses. Because all of the rulers of Equestria are referred to as 'Princess', 'Your Highness' is probably the correct term. I suppose because Celestia and/or Luna have been alive for over 1000 years without ascending to the rank of queen, it stands to reason that Equestria may not have queens or kings. If this is true then it could be acceptable to refer to the sisters (or just Celestia) as 'Your Majesty'. However, you would then probably need to refer to Twilight and Cadance as 'Your Majesty' because they are the same 'rank' as the sisters (the manner of their ascension to princess probably would not change their official title). If Equestria does happen to have kings and queens (Which seems unlikely) then they would all have the title 'Your Highness' because even though they are technically the rulers of Equestria, they still have not reached the rank of queen. Honestly, because Equestria's ruling system is so hazy to us, it might be best to just refer to them all as 'Your Highness'.
In conclusion: all royals are high, but only rulers are majestic.
I can see Twilight give this lecture to somepony making this mistake
3751613 Twilight only because she gets high with a little help from her friends.