A princess is a member of a royal family, especially the daughter of a king or queen or the wife of a prince. In some cultures, the princess is a hereditary sovereign, head of state in her own right. Other princesses are mere consorts, wives of a sovereign or other high-ranked male; they typically have no independent rule.
Some children like to have princess parties where they wear fancy dresses and tiaras. Then there are the real-life princesses who do good works around the world, such as Princess Alice of Battenberg. She hid her Jewish friends in her home during the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II, and Yad Vashem named her Righteous Among the Nations.
Until women gained more independence and respect in Europe, the title of princess usually applied only to the daughters of a monarch or other high-ranked male. Those women were sometimes addressed as “Lady Firstname,” but the term Princess has become more widely used for them.
In modern European culture, when a woman becomes a princess by marrying a prince, she may eventually inherit the title of Queen Consort (where that exists) or a higher one, such as Queen Empress, depending on the nation. She is often styled HRH (Her Royal Highness) to denote her rank. These examples have been automatically selected and may contain sensitive content. For more information, please read our Terms of Use.
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