Question for my fic

[hils]

Is there a correct way of addressing a king compared to addressing a prince?

I know in Lancelot, he addresses Arthur as 'sire' and Uther as 'your majesty'. Is that the norm? Would people call Uther 'sire' as well? In fact doesn't Gaius call Uther 'sire'?

*is confused*

Comments

[tyffi.livejournal.com]

Oy, let's hope you'll never meet your queen. ;) You are a bad, very bad Brit. ;P

Maybe this will help you (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forms_of_address_in_the_United_Kingdom).

Royalty... who needs that? *lol*

[hils.livejournal.com]

Heh! Well, I know how to address the queen!

It's interesting that according to that a prince should be addressed as 'sir' and not 'sire'

[tyffi.livejournal.com]

Hey, I didn't make the rules. We don't even have royals anymore. *lol* But certainly, a prince is a sir because he's younger (unless he's Charles) and thus haven't earned the extra E yet.

Makes totally sense, eh?! LOL!

[hils.livejournal.com]

Nothing about the english language makes sense. LOL!

[annwnrho.livejournal.com]

Possibly you'd only call Uther Your Majesty and Sire means sort of generic 'master' or royal I think. Perhaps Gaius calls him sire because he knows him longer and earned the right to not call him you majesty. So it may do with how well the person knows Uther/ Arthur or the situation so Gaius call Uther sire in an informal sort of way. If any of this made sense to you I will be amazed.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Actually that did make sense. Thanks!

[kelene.livejournal.com]

XD

I'm pretty sure you use Your Majesty for Uther and Your Royal PratHighness for Arthur.

Not sure about the Sire. Maybe it's a general term for male royalty?

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hehe!

*hopes Merlin will call Arthur a prat again in the next series*

I get the feeling the writers of Merlin (and I nearly wrote Smallville there, clearly I bitch about them too much) made up their own rules for how to address royalty.

[spikewriter]

Yes, "sire" is appropriate. I don't think "Your Grace" is appropriate yet, and most people associate that with Dukes. (Forms of address do change through history. Trust me on this; I've dealt with it more times than I care to remember.)

I think the general is kings/queens are "majesty" and princes/princesses are "highness". Unless, of course, one is a bastard offspring who's secretly plotting to take over the throne. In that case, "you little jerk" is perfectly appropriate. ;)

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hee! Perfect! Thanks!

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

I would file it under 'The MerlinVerse makes no sense and bears no relation either to reality or any accepted form of mythology but is cracking good fun anyway so I can make up my own rules, god knows the scriptwriters do'.

At that point in time (at WHAT point in time?!) they wouldn't have been speaking English anyway.

[hils.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! Very good points, well made.

[solar-cat.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAA!!! BEST. FILE. EVER. XDDDD *ded*

I'm sorry, your comment KILLED me, and I had to stop and say so. XD

[foreign-origin.livejournal.com]

I agree with the opinion that there are no rules about that in Merlin, the show is a pure crack in every way :P
Also I found the whole thing with sir/sire very amusing, I didn't even know something like "sire" exists before I started watching this show :P

[hils.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd heard of 'sire' before. I just didn't realise there were rules about who you could use it with. LOL!

[foreign-origin.livejournal.com]

lol and I though it was always "sir", didn't know there's another form :P and I actually like all those weird English royal things :P

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Yeah, we're quirky

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

Well . . . in Blackadder, Edmund calls the Prince "Your Highness," most of the time, but also "sire."

Maybe it's more common to call a king "Your majesty." Hmmm, this is a good question!

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hehe! I think about the most random things sometimes

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

I'm really not sure as the Merlin ways of addressing royalty are all off - I mean, Uther (and Arthur) is called 'Your Highness' and 'Your Majesty' at different times, though that could be Merlin's harebrained ways showing.

'Sire' applies to the king. Everyone else is pretty much 'sir' for a knight, 'my lord/lady' for lords and ladies, 'lordship/ladyship' if you're a baron, and the requisite 'your grace' for dukes and duchesses. Not sure what happens to a marquess, earl or an Archduke (or a Grand duke, for that matter).

But seriously, you'll never see that in Merlin.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Fair enough.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_calex_/]

I think "sire" can be used for both. But the difference is that a king would be referred to as "majesty" whereas a prince would be referred to as "highness".

[hils.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok. Thanks!