Posted by Erik
on 9/6/2009, 11:26:42, in reply to "A question of titles"
81.165.72.59
In Belgium, the title of Queen Fabiola is:
H.M. Queen Fabiola, Princess of Belgium (in French : S.M. la Reine Fabiola, Princesse de Belgique)
--Previous Message--
: To clarify the subject of titles for dowager
: queens, I wanted to ask: just what exactly
: is the FORMAL title for the widow of a king
: (granted that there may be slight variations
: from country to country)?
:
: Correct me if I'm mistaken, but is the full,
: formal style and title of the widow of
: Belgium's King Baudouin "Her Majesty
: Fabiola, Dowager Queen of the
: Belgians"? If so, I would imagine
: shortened (if still formal) variations to be
: "Her Majesty Dowager Queen
: Fabiola" (in a national context) or
: "Dowager Queen Fabiola of the
: Belgians" (in an international
: context).
:
: However, I believe she is known mainly by
: her informal titles -- i.e. "Her
: Majesty Queen Fabiola" (within Belgium)
: and "Queen Fabiola of the
: Belgians" (outside Belgium).
:
: At first, I thought that perhaps the widow
: of a king might be known as "Her
: Majesty the Dowager Queen" (nationally)
: or "The Dowager Queen of __"
: (internationally). The trouble with this
: title, however, lies in the fact that one
: can theoretically have two dowager queens
: living -- as was the case in the UK,
: 1952-1953. As such, there would be too much
: ambiguity in such a title -- even with
: attempts to specify by the use of an article
: ("the").
:
: Speaking of the UK, let me get straight the
: progressive styles and titles of King
: William IV's wife: I believe she was, in
: succession, "HH Princess Adelheid of
: Saxe-Meiningent" (from her birth in
: 1792 to her marriage in 1818; or perhaps she
: was only a HSH early on?), "HRH The
: Duchess of Clarence" (between her
: marriage in 1818 to her husband's accession
: to the British throne in 1830), "HM The
: Queen", nationally, and "The Queen
: of the UK", internationally (during the
: years of her husband's reign), and "HM
: Adelaide, Dowager Queen of the UK"
: (from her husband's death in 1837 to her own
: in 1845). Is all this correct?
:
: I didn't wish to sound presumptuous, but I
: wanted to create distinctions for a queen's
: style and title, from a national and
: international perspective. It only stands
: to reason, after all, that the international
: community cannot be expected to
: automatically understand just who exactly is
: being referred to, when "The
: Queen" is mentioned. Also, there is no
: obligation to be especially reverential by
: using the style "Majesty", when
: mentioning a foreign queen (that being said,
: one is obliged out of courtesy to use this
: in the context of a personal meeting or
: greeting -- even if the queen in question is
: not your own. That is: if I came face to
: face with the Spanish queen, then although
: I'm not a Spaniard myself, I would be
: obliged to call her "Your Majesty"
: -- although not to go so far as to curtsy).
:
: Conversely, in a national setting, it really
: makes no sense to refer to Sofia as
: "The Queen of Spain". I don't
: consider it pretentious for a Spaniard to
: assume that a fellow Spaniard knows whom he
: is referring to, when mentioning "Her
: Majesty the Queen" -- even in the
: context of distinguishing her from another
: queen (say during a state visit), referred
: to as "The Queen of Sweden."
:
:
:
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