I suspect that the Ligne family simply assumed the superior style of Highness, which I find intriguing. Were they entitled to do so? If they could do it why didn't other families promote themselves? For example the Prince of Merode doesn't have a predicate of any sort!
Of course, this is all based on the assumption (which I know some dispute) that a highness outranks a serene highness. Previous Message
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The various styles associated with various Germanic titles weren’t always consistent during the Holy Roman Empire and even beyond.
The Wikipedia article about the House of Ligne says that the style of *Highness* was confirmed for members of this family by the Belgian king in 1923.
The style of *Serene Highness* in its connected original German isn’t a form of *Hoheit* (directly translated to *Highness*) at all but rather is *Durchlaucht*, which would be something like “Serenity”. I believe also there might be traditions where *Highness* is the lowest style of that form and *(Most) Serene Highness* is higher.
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