Re: Title "King of the. . ."

On 2 May 2006 12:17:06 -0700, "Matt Lavengood" <matjlav45@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Gufone wrote:
I know there have been posts wherein someone writes "King of Belgium"
(usually Belgium) and then receives quick notice that it is "King of
the Belgians." I did some searching in the archives but didn't find
much explanation of the difference and why the difference.

Anyway, I was just glancing through a book by John Gunther ("Twelve
Cities," 1967) in which he says that the title was chosen by the
superpowers (chiefly Britain) to denote that there was no intimation of
a divine right, and that it was a political position of sorts.
Similarly, he says, Napoleon fashioned himself "Emperor of the French"
rather than "of France."

Joe

I think that is just a style that some monarchs chose when they became
the monarch... I think the "of the <people>" style means to indicate
that the monarch is thought of as the King/Queen of the people of the
country, not of the land. When you think about Napoleon, Emperor of the
French, it is easy to see why he would identify himself with the people
rather than the land.

In fact, the "people" style is much older and was the form originally
used in all of the older European monarchies. It was gradually
displaced by the "land" form over a period of centuries (with
Scotland, I think, the last to hold out, staying with "of Scots" until
the Union). It then made a comeback after the events of 1789; the
first change from "of France" to "of the French" was in 1791 or 1792.

--
Don Aitken
Mail to the From: address is not read.
To email me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com"
.

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