Princely Highness


Princely Highness is the English rendering of Vorstelijke Hoogheid, a very rare style of address awarded by the colonial authorities of the Dutch East Indies to very few major Sultans on Java. The word Vorst at its root is ambivalent in Dutch, used for either a ruler of the low rank title equivalent to German Fürst or as generic term for ruler, never for a non-ruling prince of the blood.
Apparently the style reflected the equally rare status of Vorstenland 'princely land', which distinguished the Susuhunan of Surakarta and plausibly to the Sultan of Yogyakarta, two of the successor states to the Islamic Mataram Sultanate on Java, from the Gouvernementslanden ' government countries' to which all other Regentschappen belonged.
In 1725 the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles [VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI], along with the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire bestowed the style of Princely Highness to the Sicilian nobleman Don Giovanni VI Ventimiglia, marquess of Geraci.
  • The same style, probably forged independently, has also been used by unhistorical 'princely houses' in fiction and micronations