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Show BRITISH PRINCESSES ROYAL H Historic Precedents, Origin of tbo Title and Somo Bear-ere Bear-ere of It Nothing In tho list of the birthday honors will gratify his majesty's sub-.Jects sub-.Jects more than tho announcement that tho duchess ot Flfo, tbo king's eldest daughter, will bear tho stylo and Utli ot Princess Royal, and, that tho daugh-ters daugh-ters of her royal highness will bear the, tltlo of highness and tho style of prln-cess, prln-cess, states tho London Tolcgraph. Tho tltlo of "Princess Royal" is on-dearcd on-dearcd to an older generation by the fact that It was borne by the eldest ot Queen Victoria's daughters, tho deeply loved and much lamented Empress Frederick of Germany. It Is n .common error to suppose that the tltlo Is only conferred upon a dnugh-ter dnugh-ter of tho reigning houso it sho hnppons to bo the first born child. This Is not Uio case. It has been conferred on the eldest daughter of tho house, whether j first born or not, whether born before f the nccesslon of her parents to the throne or after. Before tho reign of Henry VIII. tho daughters of the soy crolgn do not appear to have borno uny distinctive tltlo snvo that of "tho Lady Margaret" or "tho Lady Elizabeth," as tho case might bo. But Henry VIII. mado mora than one alteration In the styles nnd titles of royalty. Ho was, for Instance, the first English sovereign who bore the tltlo ot "Majesty," his predecessors being content with "Sov-crolgn "Sov-crolgn Lord Highness." The step, how-ever, how-ever, wns taken probably to put himself upon equal terms with his brother oi Spain, who was the first European mon-arch mon-arch to style himself majesty, He also 'caused his eldest daughter to be de-scribed de-scribed ns "Princess Mary" the queen who afterward enrao to bo popularly known by a less attractive designation It was not till the reign of Charles I that tho king's eldest daughter was com-monly com-monly called Princess Royal, |
