Majesty

thumb|Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V, the first monarch to use such a title Majesty (abbreviated HM for His Majesty or Her Majesty, oral address Your Majesty; from the Latin , meaning ) is used as a manner of address by many monarchs, usually kings or queens. Where used, the style outranks the style of (Imperial/Royal) Highness, but is inferior to the style of Imperial Majesty. It has cognates in many other languages, especially of Europe. == Origin == Originally, during the Roman Republic, the word was the legal term for the supreme status and dignity of the state, to be respected above everything else. This was crucially defined by the existence of a specific case, called (in later French and English law, ), consisting of the violation of this supreme status. Various acts such as celebrating a party on a day of public mourning, contempt of the various rites of the state and disloyalty in word or act were punished as crimes against the majesty of the republic. However, later, under the Empire, it came to mean an offence against the dignity of the Emperor.

== Style of a head of state == The term was first assumed by Charles V, who believed that—following his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519—he deserved a style greater than Highness, which preceding emperors and kings had used. Soon, Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England followed his example.