Royal protocol

Hi there

I was reading a book yesterday.  The main character was a prince.  And yes, okay, it was a royalty romance, so sue me!

And it truly irritated me all the way through the book when people kept referring to the Prince as "Your Majesty" or "His Majesty".  For goodness' sake!  He's a prince, not a sovereign.

HRH.  His Highness.  His Royal Highness. Never-never-never 'Majesty' though sometimes a sovereign's spouse can also have the title.  The book was by an American writer.

When I was in Las Vegas a few years' back, I chanced upon respected actor Sir Patrick Stewart giving a talk.  There was a queue of people lined up at a microphone to ask questions.

One guy asked, "What is your next film, Sir Stewart?"

I almost collapsed on the spot in hysterics.  Sir Stewart?

Sir Patrick breezily answered the question.  But when the next person in line, an obvious copycat, also  referred to him as 'Sir Stewart', the actor gently pointed out the mistake.

Ah, royalty, knights of the realm, and protocol.  You have to love it all!