Serene Highness

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Serene Highness (acronym HSH) – His Serene Highness or Her Serene Highness. The style of HSH appeared at the front of the princely titles of members of German ruling families. The style is also used today by the ruling families of Monaco and Liechtenstein.

1 Monaco
2 German usage
3 Hungary
4 France
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Monaco

The reigning Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert II of Monaco, is styled His Serene Highness and his sisters Stéphanie and Caroline are also styled as Her Serene Highness, although Caroline is now styled Royal Highness through marriage. In French, both male and female versions are Son Altesse Sérénissime (S.A.S.), which translates literally to "His/Her Most Serene Highness".

[edit] German usage

The style Serene Highness was mainly used by the mediatized Dukes, reigning and mediatized Fürsten ("Princes"), and the children and grandchildren of the reigning or mediatized Dukes and Fürsten, of the small German states that survived after the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. It was also given to several morganatic branches of German ruling family. Queen Mary, the consort of King George V used the style Her Serene Highness as a Princess of Teck. (The dukes and princes of Teck were a branch of the Royal House of Württemberg). In the Republic of Venice, also called the Serene Republic, the Doge was known as "Serenissimus".

In most of Europe, the style of Serene Highness was considered to be lower in rank than Highness, Grand Ducal Highness, Royal Highness, and Imperial Highness. If a woman with the rank of Royal Highness married a man with the rank Serene Highness, the woman would usually retain her pre-marital style. Queen Victoria did however create those German princes and dukes who married her daughters Royal Highnesses.

In Germany, the styled used is Durchlaucht, a tranlation for the Latin perillustris. Although this is usually translated into English as Serene Highness it would be more correct to translate it as Transparency. The incorrect translation results in the inconsistency (to English speaking minds) of a mere Highness outranking a Serene Highness.

During World War I, King George V revoked the style Serene Highness for use by those members of the British Royal Family who were British subjects.

The official current usage of the style in the German-speaking countries is by the princely house of Liechtenstein, the entirety of which bears the style, and other higher Germanic states. It is used officially by these:

Various mediatized German princely families also use the style, unofficially:

Arenberg
Auersperg
Bentheim
Erbach-Schönberg
Esterházy von Galántha
Fürstenberg
Hohenlohe
Isenburg
Leiningen
Leyen
Lobkowicz
Löwenstein-Wertheim
Oettingen
Salm-Horstmar
Salm-Salm
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
Schönburg-Hartenstein
Schönburg-Waldenburg
Solms-Braunfels
Solms-Hohensolms-Lich
The Prince of Starhemberg (although not junior members of the family)
Stolberg-Stolberg
The Prince of Stolberg-Wernigerode and his immediate family
Thurn and Taxis
Wied
Windischgrätz

[edit] Hungary

Before 1947, the style His/Her Serene Highness (Ő Főméltósága, literally: "His/Her High Dignitary") was in use in Hungary. Princes were entitled to use it and between 1920 and 1944 Regent Miklós Horthy was styled as His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (Ő Főméltósága a Magyar Királyság Kormányzója).

[edit] France

There is some evidence that in pre-Revolutionary France, one bearing the style of Serene Highness would outrank someone who was merely a Highness without any modifier. Those members of the Royal House of France who were not children or grandchildren of the king used the style Most Serene Highness. In fact, that style was introduced into France by Gaston d'Orleans the son of Henry IV and younger brother of Louis XIII.