10 Royal Words

1. The crown

This is a lot more than just the Queen’s headgear. In official contexts, the term is typically used to represent everything the current crown-holder herself represents - namely, the UK (and sometimes the Commonwealth) plus collectively all of its governments.

2. Household

It’s easy to presume that references to “the royal household,” must be to the Queen’s immediate family or staff. In fact the term refers not just all the individuals who support the monarch on a day-to-day basis (ladies-in-waiting and other personal attendants) but all of the institutions, organisations and departments that support her and her work as sovereign, too. As a result, it includes the likes of the Queen’s Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, private secretaries and financiers; representatives from the church and the military; the current Poet Laureate, Astronomer Royal and Master of the Queen’s Music; and countless other honorary positions handed out to favoured musicians, writers, scientists and artists.

3. Consort

The wife of a king is properly called the queen consort. The husband of a queen is also consort. Camilla is the new Queen Consort; Prince Philip was the Prince Consort.

4. Heir Apparent

Whoever stands first in line of succession to the throne is usually classed not just as an heir but as heir apparent. That specific designation implies that not only are they first in line to succeed the current monarch on their death but that no one else can challenge their position at the top of the list. Prince Charles was the heir apparent. Now he has succeeded Queen Elizabeth II, it is his son, Prince William.

5. Heir Presumptive

The opposite of an heir apparent is an heir presumptive, which is someone whose position at the top of the order of succession has the potential to be lost or challenged by the birth of a more eligible heir. This is a state of affairs increasingly unlikely since an Act of Parliament of 2013 removing gender from the order of succession. Before then, it was the case that sons automatically outranked daughters, regardless of who was born first.

6. Succession

Succession itself is the automatic replacement of one monarch by their heir when they die or step aside. Hence the formal list of all those in line to throne (ranked in order of eligibility, taking into account the fact that first-born children always outrank their siblings) is the order of succession.

7. Accession

Succession is different from accession, which is the legal process or mechanism by which a king or queen rises from the order of succession to take to the throne. One monarch is said to succeed another, while whoever that successor happens to be is said to accede to the throne.

8. Abdication

Abdication is the process by which a monarch relinquishes their royal authority. Probably the most famous was that of Edward VIII in 1936. There have been a handful of others in Britain’s long history.

9. and 10. Regnant and Regent

These two similar terms are related, but in practice have very different roles. The current reigning monarch is said to be the king or queen regnant. If that regnant monarch is unable to rule in a personal capacity for any particular reason, then it’s often the case that someone related to them steps up to take over the duties of the head of state without becoming head of state themselves. In that case, they are styled as the regent.

(11. Fount of Honour. The term fount or fountain of honour is used to designate an individual who has the right to bestow peerages, titles of nobility, orders of chivalry or similar honours, or else nominate someone else to do precisely that on their behalf. In the UK, the Monarch alone is the sole fount of honour.

12. Privy Purse, The private income of the monarch is known as the privy purse. Today, most of the the monarch's personal income is derived from ownership of the Duchy of Lancashire, a vast portfolio of land and property established in the late 1300s. As part of the Duchy, the monarch owns castles, estates, and farmsteads across the UK, as well as more than 18,000 hectares of land, and, minus some bits they’ve sold off, all the foreshore from Liverpool to Barrow in Furness.

13. Sovereign Grant. Since 2012, in addition to her private income, the Queen has also received an annual payment from the British government known as the sovereign grant. The payment, intended to cover the costs of the monarch’s official duties, based around a proportion of the profits from the British Crown Estate and its holdings, and typically comes in at around an astonishing £80 million per year. The argument is that the Royal Family contribute billions to the UK economy.)