difference between Princess, duchess and Lady?

Question

difference between Princess, duchess and Lady?

Answer 1

A princess is the daughter of a king or husband of a prince.



A duchess is the holder of a duchy in her own right or husband of a duke



A lady is either the daughter or wife of a lord, a woman who has been elevated to the peerage or a woman who has been knighted.

Answer 2

In the UK Peerage.



Princess is the daughter of a monarch (or possibly a Princess Consort - a style to be adopted by Camilla when the heir apparent succeeds - unless things change); alternatively it is the title of someone married to a prince (when they take their husbands name - eg Princess William, Princess Michael. They are addressed as HRH. Note Princess Marina for example was the grandaughter of the King of Greece, so used her own name rather than her husbands.



The Princess Royal is a courtesy title for life given (usually) to the most senior princess - ie the eldest daughter of the monarch - there is only ever one holder of the title at a time.



George V limited the use of the style prince and princess to the grandchildren of the monarch (eg Princess Beatrice and Eugenie, but Lady Windsor does not have the style Princess at the wish of the Queen.



This outranks



A Duchess who is the wife of a Duke. (She may be royal or she may be a commoner - eg wives of the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent are Princesses). There are currently no duchesses, (or indeed marchionesses, or viscountesses) in their own right - if a Duchess is widowed of a Duke she becomes the Dowager Duchess and stands aside for the next Duke and Duchess. The Duchess of Marlborough is probably the last suo jure Duchess.



The exception to this is the Queen who is the Duke of Normandy and the Duke of Lancaster and is always a Duke, never a Duchess.



A Lady is the wife of a Knight, or a lord,or daughter of an Earl, or a Baroness, or life peer - and is way below a duchess. The present queen's mother was the Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and thus a commoner until she became a Duchess by marrying the then Duke of York - eventually becoming Queen Elizabeth (as consort of George VI) a title she retained when she was widowed (with the addition of the title The Queen Mother where necessary). The Princess Royal is also Lady Timothy Laurence by marriage (since he has been knighted), but this is not a title she uses as she is HRH.



[As with all things there are exceptions to the rule - Prince Richard's mother is allowed to be known as HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester instead of HRH The Dowager Duchess of Gloucester - and despite being a Princess only by marriage, uses her own name.]

Answer 3

Is A Duchess A Princess

Answer 4

Universally, a princess may be 1) the daughter of a king; for example, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were the daughters of George VI of the United Kingdom; Princess Victoria is the daughter of Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden. Of course, a daughter of a king may also be a Countess as well as a Princess. Princess Margaret of the UK was also the Countess of Snowdon upon her marriage to Anthony Armstrong-Jones.



2) However, a princess can also be the daughter of a royal duke, who is also a prince; for instance, the Princesses Beatrix and Eugenie are the daughters of the Duke of York, who btw is also Prince Andrew of the UK.



3) A princess (consort) is also the wife of a prince, who may be a royal duke. Thus, Camilla Parker-Bowles, as the wife of Prince Charles while technically a princess is styled the Duchess of Cornwall.



4) Then again, the wife of a non-royal duke is also a duchess, even though he may descend from a royal prince or king from some point in time. For example, Hugh Fitzroy, the 11th Duke of Grafton, descends from England and Scotland's Charles II's third eldest illegitimate son. In 1946, he married Ann Fortune Smith, the current Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth II. If Hugh Fitzroy is the Duke of Grafton, his wife is the Duchess of Grafton.



Address princess as "Your Royal Highness" upon first greeting her and subsequently call her "Ma'am. which is, btw, the same greeting reserved for a royal duchess. Call a non-royal Duchess either "Grace" or "Duchess". (Vanderbilt 606; 608 )



Whereas, a lady is just a commoner.

Answer 5

A princess is the daughter or wife of a prince, or the child of the monarch, usually closely related the king or queen.

A Duchess is the wife of a duke (a woman in the UK cannot be a duchess in her own right).

Lady is the daughter of a duke or earl.

Sometimes you may hear a duchess or countess be referred as Lady [and then her title]. So on Downton Abbey, Cora is the Countess of Grantham but may be called Lady Grantham.

Answer 6

A princess is the two a daughter of a prince or king, or is married to a prince. A duchess the two holds the identify in her own suitable or is married to a duke. in comparison to a princess, a duchess isn't a royal.

Answer 7

A princess is the daughter of a monarch, or the wife of a prince.



A duchess is the wife of a duke (the highest rank of the non-royal nobility, though in the UK, princes are quite often made Royal Dukes. Recent tradition is for this to be done as a wedding present, as was done for Prince William. These rank higher than non-royal dukes and it is traditional for Royal Dukes and their wives to be referred to as Duke and Duchess of X, even though they are also princes and princesses as well).



Lady is a non-royal title that can arise in a number of circumstances. Daughters of dukes, marquesses and earls (the three highest ranks of the nobility) have Lady in front of their names. A Lady can also be the wife of a knight. If John Smith is knighted and becomes Sir John Smith, his wife becomes Lady Smith. Note the difference - the wife of a knight is Lady Smith, without her first name. A Lady who is a daughter of a peer includes her first name, as with Lady Diana Spencer before she married Prince Charles.

Answer 8

"Lady" is a styling, an honorific used by peeresses and is not a title.

A duchess is the highest-ranking peeress; there are two kinds of peer, non-royal and royal. A royal peer is a king, queen, prince or princess as well as a peer and their status is higher than the non-royal peer.

Royal Rankings:

King/Queen Regnant

Queen/Prince Consort spouses of the reigning monarch

Prince/Princess Regnant for heads of a principality

Grand Duke/Duchess for the princely heads of a Grand Duchy

Prince/Princess (children of a king and queen,prince and princess)



Non-royal Peerage



The hereditary non-peerage once meant that the holder of the title did something to help the monarchy and they were rewarded with a title and sometimes a political job. It once also meant a guaranteed seat in the House of Lords in Parliament. Today's peers don't have a guaranteed seat, but a peerage ranking makes the person a titled aristocrat and not a commoner, a term derived from Parliament's other house, the House of Commons. A royal without a peerage title is a commoner royal. Royals with peerage titles are higher ranked than those without. In order of precedence the rankings are:

Duke/Duchess--- once headed lands in name of the monarch called a Duchy. Today's remaining duchies are Royal Duchies that are the provenance of kings,queens,princes and princesses.



Marquess/Marchioness

Earl/Count/Countess

Viscount/Viscountess

Baron/Baroness



Hereditary non-peerage honor

Baronet



A duke is "My Lord Duke," while other peers and the baronet are Lords. The female equivalent is Lady. A princess is "Your/Her Royal Highness." A royal duchess is a princess or queen and is "Your/Her Royal Highness."

Answer 9

In rank order:



Princess

Duchess

Lady



Princess outranks both of them. Princesses are usually the daughters or granddaughters of a king or queen. Traditionally, a "commoner," or a woman possessing no royal rank, can gain the title of princess by marrying a prince, with the possibility of later becoming a queen.



A duchess is the wife or widow of a duke, or a woman who equally holds the rank of duke in her own right.



Lady is a woman of superior social position as in nobility.

Answer 10

Princess = female direct relation of reigning monarch

Duchess = Female form of royal title given by a monarch to a person who oversees a territory, or the wife of a Duke (who does the same)

Lady = Honorific for the daughter of Duke, Marquis or Earl, and also used as the female version of Sir for a woman given an OBE.