Princess Facts For Kids

Princess is a word used for some women in royal families. Sometimes a princess is the daughter of a king or queen. Sometimes she is the wife of a prince. In other places, a princess can be the ruler herself, like a small-country leader who has the power of a monarch.

The male word for princess is prince. That word comes from an old Latin word, princeps, which meant the main or first citizen. A special kind of princess, a crown princess, may be the next ruler-to-be or the wife of that next ruler.

A substantive title means the title belongs to the person who really rules. When a woman is a princess with real ruling power, she is sometimes called a *princess regnant*. There have been fewer ruling princesses than ruling princes because long ago many places did not let women inherit the throne.

For example, a woman named Constance of Antioch ruled as a princess regnant in the 1100s. In a different idea, the tiny country of Andorra is run by two leaders; because one leader is the president of France, it is possible, at least on paper, that a princess could share that job one day.

A courtesy title is a name people use for a royal person even when it does not mean they rule. Long ago in Britain, daughters of a king or queen were not always called princesses. They might be called "Lady" or simply "The Lady" plus their first name. This was the way language and custom worked at that time.

Sometimes a marriage contract or legal paper would call a royal daughter a princess. Over time, countries changed rules so that more daughters and other close family members received the title princess as a courtesy, to show their place in the royal family.

Many wives of princes are called princesses as a courtesy. This means the title shows their connection to a prince rather than that they rule. In Britain, the rules changed in the 1700s so that children and grandchildren of the sovereign often had the titles Prince or Princess and the style of Royal Highness.

Queen Victoria confirmed these written rules, called letters patent, in 1864 so everyone would follow them. More recently, on 31 December 2012, Queen Elizabeth II used letters patent to say that all children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have the royal title and the style "His or Her Royal Highness."