What would have happened if a random commoner had addressed the British monarch by their first name?
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In answer to the question. Absolutely nothing. There is no crime, no offence under law and anyone taking the law into their own hands could be prosecuted by the local magistrates.
Ofc if the King is in his cups at the time, fists may fly but thats about it.
At best its being impolite. And by and large common folk do not get to meet the Monarch anyway unless the monarch goes out of his way to meet them.
Ofc if the King is in his cups at the time, fists may fly but thats about it.
At best its being impolite. And by and large common folk do not get to meet the Monarch anyway unless the monarch goes out of his way to meet them.
Not obvious even then. I agree that bodyguards ejecting the person pus modest physical chastisement plus unfavourable reception to whatever the commoner was asking for would have been the common worse case.
As for commoners meeting the King? King John moved an average of 220 times per year. Mostly on horseback (most roads were too rough for coaches before 18th century). Which meant that the King would have spent maybe a thousand hours or more every year riding alongside rural roads, with a few tens to a few hundreds of other horses, some ridden and some carrying his luggage. The peasants going around the same roads would have given way, but the road was narrow... the peasant might have been likely to see the court ride past him or her in a single file, and spot the King passing, few yards away. So what about the commoners addressing the King as he rode past? Crowds on city streets, of course, but the scattered road users in countryside. Remember, no Bentley One, no State Coach, no windows. A cavalcade did not move at 90 km/h in a highway with closed bulletproof and soundproof windows - it was maybe at 12 km/h in a hurry, but that would tire the horses quite soon, and where would the court get hundreds of fresh horses every 20 km? A few would be an option, but the king was travelling with 200 horses not 12, meaning that he was probably slowed down to 5 km/h? What DID the peasants tell the King when they spotted him passing among his cavalcade? "Hey"? "Hooray"? "Hail"?
When someone came up to James II asking to be touched for scrofula, he retorted "God grant you better health and more sense" and refused.
Every British royal since George I has spoken German. It was the language at home under Victoria, with one observer noting that, even in later life, her children's German accents got progressively thicker the longer they were in one another's company.
As to George V, he spoke fluent German - why wouldn't he? - and Edward VIII certainly wasn't speaking English to Hitler. In fact, at one point in his education, he was criticized because he spoke better German than he did English. All of George V's sons were fluent to greater or lesser degrees (see George VI's famous stutter), and the late Queen did speak German despite being raised in the staunchly anti-German interwar Era (although I have no clue how fluent she was in conversational German)
That's not true at all , he was normally addressed as Your Grace, Majesty is more a 17th Century thing so James VI&I with both Highness and Grace still being used till the 1620's.
Most European royalty meet plenty of commoners, beside it being pretty hard to avoid, it was also part of the job. While British royalty likely was more isolated than their continental counterparts who often hold audience for commoners to bring up complaints, they would have to active isolating themselves to avoid them completely. Kings who travelled around their kingdom sometimes had to seek shelter in very impoverish farmer‘s houses.
He was the first English King to have himself called Your Majesty. It was usually Your Grace before then. Dukes were referred to by Grace and, once again, he wanted to make sure people knew he was not just first among equals.
When did English monarchs begin to be addressed as "Your Majesty" instead of "Your Grace"?
Answer (1 of 10): Charles V of Spain, upon his elevation to Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, decided that he should be styled “Your Majesty” rather than “Highness”. Prior to Henry VIII, kings and queens were styled “Your Grace” or “Your Highness”. However, not to be outdone by Charles V, Henry also s...
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Define commoner, the Mayor of London is a commoner, and in trade. Most of the Judiciary are commoners as are most of the clergy and all the servants but none of them are going to gratuitously be impolite to anyone. The British royals have an effective judiciary acting in the Monarchs name and depending on the particular monarch have to have dealings with Parliament, or the headsman, army and navy officers, privateers, golf buddies other animal breeders and specific ceremonial audiences with paupers suffering from scrofula.
At certain times others would have regular dealings with the watch they were responsible for
English kings who travelled around the country very occasionally stayed in impoverished farmers houses, if there was a thunderstorm, with the rest of their entourage huddling in the wet. More likely its a progress from and to great nobles houses, numerous Royal Castles or in the field with an army because they have people with them to do the governing thing.
What they don't do as a rule is wander down to the pub for a swift half and get into a fight or haggle at the market. They do from personal experience is turn the wrong way down a one way street and nearly run me over. but then Vlaclav Havel does not look when he is turning.
Key word you are missing is sometimes, documents from the period call him all three titles pretty randomly. Its not till the 1620's that Majesty becomes the only style.He was the first English King to have himself called Your Majesty. It was usually Your Grace before then. Dukes were referred to by Grace and, once again, he wanted to make sure people knew he was not just first among equals.
When did English monarchs begin to be addressed as "Your Majesty" instead of "Your Grace"?
Answer (1 of 10): Charles V of Spain, upon his elevation to Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, decided that he should be styled “Your Majesty” rather than “Highness”. Prior to Henry VIII, kings and queens were styled “Your Grace” or “Your Highness”. However, not to be outdone by Charles V, Henry also s...www.quora.com
That I am missing? When you were originally quoting me you cut out the remainder of the paragraph where I mentioned how he was also referred to in different ways, including to how he would be referred to with multiple honorifics in the same text.
You are missing that your assertion that he insisted on being Your Majesty is not backed up by the evidence which has him referred to by many different styles.
They were raised bilingual and bicultural, like a lot of children of immigrants.
James VII & II had very legitimate reasons to be sceptical of people who were addressing him as if he weren't the king - even before he ascended, they tried to deny him his rightful throne because of religious bigotry, his first year on the throne, one of his nephews almost overthrew him, then three years later, a different nephew succeeded in overthrowing him. Shame William of didn't lose and and get the Monmouth treatment.
To be fair, I wouldn't want to touch someone with a contagious disease, especially in a time before there was real medical care.
I wonder to what extent they addressed each other as Jürgen/Wilhelm/Viktoria/Eduard/Albrecht in private. I doubt Charles and Andrew were ever called Karl/Carl or Andreas, though. Prince Harry = Heinrich von Oldenburg lol, or, in full, Heinrich Carl Albrecht David von Oldenburg.
I remember reading somewhere that his English was far better than his German. I studied German for half a decade, but I would not say that I can speak German. I can have a basic/possibly intermediate conversation chock full of grammatical errors and anglicisms, with a very strong English accent (even though I am Irish, my native language is, sadly, English, so I think it's proper to call my accent in German English, since it's not an accent that comes from the Irish language). I can read and understand bits and pieces, just for example
Anne (Großbritannien) – Wikipedia
"Anne war die zweite Tochter von James, dem Duke of York und späteren Jakob II. Ihre Mutter war Lady Anne Hyde, Tochter von Edward Hyde, einem einflussreichen englischen Politiker. Ihr Onkel herrschte als Karl II.
Anne und Maria waren die einzigen Kinder ihrer Eltern, die bis ins Erwachsenenalter überlebten. Anne litt allerdings an einer Augenkrankheit, so dass man sie bereits als Kleinkind nach Frankreich sandte, um sie dort medizinisch behandeln zu lassen. Sie lebte dort anfangs bei ihrer Großmutter, der Königin Henrietta Maria, und anschließend bei ihrer Tante Henrietta Anne, der Herzogin von Orléans.
1670 kehrte Anne aus Frankreich nach England zurück. Ungefähr im Jahre 1673 lernte sie Sarah Jennings, später Churchill, kennen, die als junges Mädchen in den Hofstaat der zweiten Frau des Duke of York, Maria Beatrice von Modena, aufgenommen worden war. Trotz des Altersunterschiedes von fünf Jahren schlossen die zwei Mädchen eine enge Freundschaft, die über viele Jahre andauern sollte und die dazu führte, dass Sarah Churchill zur einflussreichsten Beraterin der späteren englischen Königin wurde."
My translation, without using any dictionaries or translation tools.
"Anne was the second daughter of James, then Duke of York, later James II [THIS IS INCORRECT, IT SHOULD SAY JAMES VII & II]. Her mother was Lady Anne Hyde, daughter of Edward Hyde, a [?????] English politician. Her uncle was Charles II.
Anne and Mary [her sister, who usurpsed their father along with her cousin/husband William of Orange] were the only children of their parents, [I think this next part means that survived to adulthood, based on what I already know about James VII & II's children, but this is an educated guess based on my preexisting knowledge], so that when they were young children they were sent to France. They lived with their grandmother, Queen Henrietta Maria [wife of the murdered Charles I], and then with their aunt Henrietta Anne, the Duchess of Orleans.
In 1670, Anne returned to England from France. In the year 1673, she met Sarah Jennings, later Churchill, a young woman who worked for the second husband of the Duke of York, Mary of Modena. For the next five years, the two girls became friends, and for many years afterwords, Sarah Churchill was friends with the English Queen."
So I got the general gist of it, but I wouldn't say that I speak German, or that I am comfortable reading it. If it were an article on a topic that I had no familiarity with and wasn't full of personal names that I recognized, I would have a much lower rate of comprehension.
I just kinda assumed that they used translators.
I remember reading that George VI didn't speak German, that he had a heard enough time with English (due to his stutter), that they didn't bother with him learning German. I don't think Elizabeth II spoke German, everything I've read says she spoke English and French. Charles III speaks German, albeit with a British accent. Prince Philip spoke it perfectly, and I think it might have been his first language. I assumed Charles learned it from Philip. Philip also spoke French well.
Thanks for the video of Edward speaking German, very cool. I noticed an English accent on some words, but he seemed pretty fluent.
I never said his reasons were illegitimate. But having legitimate reasons to not laugh off people being insolent is not the same thing as laughing it off, so here we are as far as "What would have happened if...?"
speech problems don't necessarily translate across languages. Friend of mine stutters like a car struggling to start (his own description) when he speaks English, but when he speaks German or Czech (he's been living/working in Prague for over a decade), he doesn't stutter. It's like dyslexia (my brother has it). You can barely read in English, but give him a book in any other language...he'll read it no problem. It's why they picked his dyslexia up so late in life- all his teachers thought he was just lazy.
There are conflicting studies about it. Some saying that children who are bilingual/multilingual stutter more than monolingual studies. Others that it's rare for bilingual children to stutter in multiple languages (same for dyslexia). However, the overwhelming amount of studies are conducted by English-speaking universities in English-speaking countries where the population is mostly monolingual. Hence my inclusion of two cases I'm personally familiar with
It might not be a crime in England, but certainly is one in Sinosphere countries. Naming taboos were so harsh that you weren't even allowed to write the Chinese characters of the Emperor's name on the imperial exam.
And in Japan you don't refer to a deceased Emperor by their personal name (eg. Hirohito); likewise, you never refer to a living Emperor by their era, or posthumous, name.
Punished, yes. Beheaded, no. For example, if you're a peasant, you'll probably be left alive so you can continue to work for your liege.