SOME CURIOSITIES OF TITLES

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 16 July 1901, Page 4

SOME CURIOSITIES OF TITLES

Peers Without Titles and Mon archs with more than they can Remember. Of the 125 dukedoms in Great Britain there is only one which has not the se-

condary title of marquis or earl for its heir touso as a title of courtesy. This dukedom is that of Somerset. The only other title belonging to Algernon St. Maur, Duke of Somerset, is that of Baron Seymour. The difficulty has been got over by inventing a new tide, and Lord Percy St. Maur, the present heir, is known as Earl Sc. Maur.

Eldest sons of peers have no real right to the titles they are known by. These are theirs purely by courtesy. The son of a peer shares in none of tho privilegea conferred by law on peers of the realm He is on exactly the same footing as any other commoner. There is however, one remarkable exception to this. The eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland is Earl Percy, a peer in his own right, and entitled to a seat in tho House of Lords.

Eldest sons of marquises have, as a rule, the empty honour of an earldom to fall luck upon. Three, however, the heirs to Weymouth, Salisbury, and Townshend, arc viscounts only. Most of our 123 earls have also a secondary, title, viscounty or barony, for their heirs. It is not till we come to our 30 viscounts that we find their eldest sons addressed simply as “ honourable.” To rise a step to Royalties, the titles given to cldes[ sons of Sovereigns arc curiously varied. Two, the heirs to the Austrian and German thrones, are known as “Princes Imperial.” Prince Royal is used in Bavaria, Greece, Denmark, Saxony Wurtemberg, and Sweden. Russia stands by herself in calling her heir “ Czarewitch,” and Spain, too, has a unique title in “Infant” or “Infanta,” which have been used for the past nine centuries. In other countries, like our own, the eldest son is Prince of some territory which he rarely sees, over which he has no jurisdiction, and from which he draws no revenue. Similar titles to Prince of Wales are borne by the Flemish Duke of Brabant and. the Portuguese Don of Alcantara.

One of iho most peculiar tit’es ever conferred on Royal children''was that bestowed on the heirs of the German Emperor.--, “Most Noble Purple-Born.’’

The titles of many monarchs have as smali a foun lation as those o: their children. Tho King of Sardinia in very recent times u cl to waste two sheets of paper in all official letters in describing himself as King of Cyprus, Sicily and Jerusalem, as well as Duke, Prince, Count and Marquis over 47 other districts, in most of which the people had probably never even hoard of him. At the very same time the King of Naples also professed to be King of Jerusalem, just as our own monarchs kept the title of King of France for two full centuries after losing their last acre of French soil. One of the most amusing examples ever known of this claiming of titles was seen in a British treaty made with the last Mogul Emperor of Delhi, Ho began by calling himself “King of tho World,’’ yet tho treaty is full of humble concessions to tho people who had so lately defended him.

We Britons have been in the habit of imagining that our country is Mistress of the Seas Apparently our Empire is but a partial one for the King of Portugal is King of Portugal and Algava, Within and Beyond the Seas, aud is besides in Africa Seigneur of Guinea and of tho Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopes, Arabia, Persia and the Indies. ”

Most of the Royal titles used to-day arc of comparatively modern origin. “King ” is probably tho most ancient. Tho title “ King, ” appearing in almost every line, was that which gave the key to ilie uniform inscription on the old Assyrian tombs. ‘ Emperor ’ which means simply “ commaudor-in-chief ’’ was the next in order of time. Curiously enough, it entirely disappesred in Europe for four centuries, and was revived by the great French monarch, Charlemagne, on Christmas Day , a. d. 800. “Duke” was a Sovereign title for a long time, and there are still five reigning German Dukes whoso titles are no mere empty ones. “Elector’’ was a very great title indeed, at one time. But that, too, has fallen. Tho last to go was the Electorship of Hesse-Casael in ISG6. The latter more frequently was called “Landgrave,” a title his ancestors chose to distinguish themselves from the swarm of counts around them.

“Czar,” now so famous, was at one time quite a secondary title of Russia’s rulers. “Great Lord, Grand Duke, Autocrat, and Czar” were the original titles of Russia’s Sovereigns. In 1547 Ivan IV was crowned Czar of Moscow, and later on his descendants b. came, by conquest, Czars of All] the Russias—Great, Little, New, Black, Red, White, and Southern Russia. Then Peter the Great thought he would like the title of Emperor, and took it. This caused —a desperate quarrel with the Emperor of Germany, who, as the inheritor of the title of the old Roman Emperors, thought no one else had right to use it.

“Sultan” is not ancient title. Turks thinks much more of the word “Caliph,” which means “substitute ’’—that is, substitute here on earth for the Prophet Mahomet, still considered their actual head. The Sultan of Turkey is Caliph of Damascus, Cordova, Bagdad, lez, Grenada, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunis. A rather remarkable thing about the present Sultan is that he is not of the family of the Prophet at all. Therefore all the Emirs, which is the name given to Mahomet’s descendants, and of whom there arc many thousands, forego whilst in his presence their special privilege of wearing the Green Turban. “Majesty” is quite a modern title. A mere live centuries have elapsed since the word was first used. Henry VIII was the first English monarch to adopt it. Before that “Serenity” and “ Grace” were more common attributes.