Highness

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

His Serene Highness (SD) ( mhd. Participle of durchliuhten (" through illuminate"), cf. erlaucht ), or your Serene Highness (ID) for female titleholders, in old texts also as Drlt. abbreviated , is a title of nobility in the original form of an adjective (transparent) , which was also used to address ; it could be awarded to certain noble families of the high nobility by the Roman-German Emperor , after the end of the Old Empire in 1806 by the Emperor of Austria and finally, from 1871, by the German Emperor . The title is modeled on the Latin Serenitas or Serenissimus , which was already attributed to the Roman emperors Honorius and Arcadius and after them the Frankish and Gothic kings and was once considered higher than Highness (Celsitudo) , which was later reversed.

The predicate, initially used by kings, then by electors, then by dukes, was ultimately available to practically all princes . All princes who had previously ruled until 1806 were entitled to lead, but it was ultimately also given to the pure titular princes of the 19th century. In some families the predicate was given to all members (usually when the agnates carried the title of prince), in others only to the head of the family (usually provided that the younger descendants of the prince only carried the title of count).

history

Since the Middle Ages, sovereign princes, especially monarchs, have been referred to as illustrious in letters and documents (adjectivally as a loan translation from Latin illustris ). In the Holy Roman Empire, the title " Serene" was first given to the electors by Emperor Karl IV in 1375. Since Emperor Leopold I , this was also granted to other old princely persons, for the first time in 1664 to Württemberg , while the others remained Serene Highborn . When the serenity became more and more widespread among the princes, the secular electors and the clergy, provided they were of princely origin, as well as the archdukes of Austria received the title serene .

Initially high born was the title of nobility of the dukes - who were inferior to kings and electors -who then gradually switched to Highness in the 17th century, with the superlative form ("most serene") coming into fashion among them, while Highness from the official linguistic usage Monarchs, dukes and princes gradually disappeared and now fell to the ruling, imperial counts . (Highborne then remained the salutation for not ruling counts as well as barons or lords of the nobility , high and Honor for members of the other gentry, Honor in the 19th century to the salutation on Civil dignitaries ).

According to a resolution of May 14, 1712, all of the old princes then also gave each other the title of Most Serene . On 14 December 1746 they arranged that the new rich princely houses the predicate also Durchlauchtig or Durchlauchtig Highborne should get this but even the old prince over Durchlauchtigst should use and the signature "Dienstwilligster".

In the German lands, some federal princes who continued to rule (between 1815 and 1918) after the mediatization of the noble princes and counts were given special prominence by the title of High Princely Highness . This applies to the period after 1871 within the German Empire for the princes of Lippe, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. Reigning Dukes were from 1844 Highnesses to Highnesses upgraded.

Since 1918, the only ruling prince who still bears the title of Highness has been the Prince von und zu Liechtenstein , whose land belonged to the Holy Roman Empire until 1806 and to the German Confederation until 1866 .

Outside the German-speaking area, the predicate serenity is usually translated with (the wrong form) "Serene Highness" (English) or "Altesse Sérénissime" (French), but this does not mean serenity, but "serene (st) e Your Highness ". The ruling prince as well as the princes and princesses of Monaco are addressed with the predicate Altesse Sérénissime . In Italian the title is “Altezza serenissima”. It was also bestowed by the rulers of France, Russia, Italy and the Pope.

With the elimination of the public law anchoring of the nobility in the republican German Empire and in German Austria in 1919, the title of Highness also lost its official claim. As an obsolete form of politeness, it has now become uncommon as a form of address. Only in non-official, social correspondence is the predicate, usually in the form of the abbreviations SD (his / her highness, for a prince or prince) or ID (your highness, for a princess or princess) as a courtesy term on a written invitation or placed in front of or above the name when addressing letters, for example: "SD dem Fürsten zu Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Wallerstein , 86757 Schloss Wallerstein ". IIDD stands for your nobles (the prince and princess).

Selection of noble families with the title “Highness”

Princely families of the ruling houses (partly until 1918)

Formerly mostly imperial families, since 1806/1815 noble, princely families

Other princely houses that deserved the title “Your Highness”

In the literature

In his satire on the Grand Duchy of Weimar 1830s "Grand Duchy of pumpernickel" in the world-famous socio-critical novel, has become a proverb called "Vanity Fair" ( Vanity Fair ) of 1847 ironically the British author W. M. Thackeray (1811-1863) entitled " Serene Highness "with the pseudo-translation" His Transparency The Duke and his Transparent family "(Chapter LXII with the original title" Am Rhein ").

The Low German poet Fritz Reuter titled a humoresque "Dörchläuchting" (1866). Behind the title hero is Duke Adolf Friedrich IV of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

literature

  • Eckart Conze (ed.): Small lexicon of the nobility. Titles, thrones, traditions. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-51070-1 .
  • Werner Conze : Keyword “nobility, aristocracy”. In: Basic historical concepts. Historical lexicon on the political-social language in Germany. Stuttgart 1972, Vol. I, pp. 1-48.
  • Walter Demel : The European nobility. From the Middle Ages to the present. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-50879-0 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Your Highness  - Explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Digital dictionary of the German language of the 20th century
  2. ^ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility , Princely Houses Volume XV, Complete Series Volume 114, Limburg an der Lahn 1997, ISBN 3-7980-0814-0 , pp. 68–71