November 19, 2012

Fiction Q&A: How to style royal and noble titles

Q: When referring to a king or lord, when do you capitalize--if at all--for sire and your majesty and such? For example:
All we can do now is wait and pray that you and your healers can help my sister, your majesty.
I'm so confused. Thanks for your help.


A:
Titles are tricky, because it depends how you're using them.

Generally speaking, the title will be capitalized if it's being used with or in place of the person's name. So in your example, Your Majesty would be capitalized. That's what we call "direct address." But if you and I are talking about the king, "king" isn't capitalized because we're talking about him, not to him.

See more at my website.

2 comments:

  1. What about the his and her forms. e.g. Her majesty, his lordship...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. According to The Chicago Manual of Style, forms like His Excellency and Her Majesty are capitalized.

      Delete