Q: When referring to a king or lord, when do you capitalize—if at all—for sire and your majesty and such? For example:
All we can do now is wait and pray that you and your healers can help my sister, your majesty.
I’m so confused. Thanks for your help.
A: Titles are tricky, because it depends how you’re using them.
Generally speaking, the title will be capitalized if it’s being used with or in place of the person’s name. So in your example, Your Majesty would be capitalized. That’s what we call “direct address.” But if you and I are talking about the king, “king” isn’t capitalized because we’re using the word to talk about him, not as a name when talking to him.
Similarly, “Prince Charles” is capped because it’s part of his name, but when you refer to “the prince” it’s lowercase because you are not addressing him directly.
This is also true of military titles. So you might write:
Next, Admiral Akbar will give the briefing
(capitalized because it’s part of his name)
“Good morning, Admiral.”
(Capitalized because it’s a direct address in place of his name.)
But:
“The admiral said it was a trap.”
The exceptions—I see a lot of people get these wrong—are these:
- sir
- ma’am
- my lord
- my lady
Unless they’re at the start of a sentence, these are lowercase, even in direct address, per The Chicago Manual of Style 8.32 (16th edition) or 8.33 (17th edition). So “lord” is capitalized in “Lord Fauntleroy” and “Your Lordship,” but lowercase in “my lord.” Chicago doesn’t include “sire” in this list, but the usage example in Merriam-Webster shows it lowercase, presumably because it’s akin to “sir.”
Generally speaking, the “Your” forms are capitalized (Your Excellency, Your Majesty), as are “his” forms (His Excellency, Her Majesty), while the “my” forms not (my lord, my liege).
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