Rank and Precedence
GrandDuchess said:
Heads of States of sovereign countries (wheter it is a President, King/Queen or any other form) hold the same rank in official protocol.
All Heads of State are equal in rank; their rank being "Head of State" of an independent sovereign nation.
However, they are not equal in precedence, and this is where the Royals more often than not have the upper hand.
Modern precedence is usually given in terms of the length of the rule/reign/elected office.
In Europe, for example, Queen Elizabeth is not only the longest reigning Monarch, but the longest serving Head of State, so she is at the top of the list. Prince Albert would currently be at the bottom of the list of precedence because he has been Head of State the shortest time.
Most politician presidents serve one or two terms, and that's it; say 8 to 10 or 12 years max. Once a Monarch gets into his or her stride and passes that point they are then moving with other royals, unusually long-serving politicians or presidents, and the ocasional dictator-for-life.
But compromises are always made; it would be unlikely that a just-elected President of the United States would be told to sit in the back row! This is very much a case of deference to power, not attainment or breeding.
And for events like the Vatican funural it would be a given that reigning Royalties are seated in the front row.
It is easy to work out from a list of Royals who should go where and in what order, but much more difficult and arcane when dealing with, say a bevy of German and Austrian Nobility. In this case title, rank and stye, and "age" of the House come into play.
In former times there would, at big meetings/coronations/weddings etc be a melange of Imperial Emperors and Empresses, Archdukes and Archduchesses, Royal Kings and Queens, Grandukes and GrandDuchesses, Dukes and Duchesses, Princes and Princesses, Counts and Countesses etc etc.
The difficulty here is that some Princes were reigning Princes, and some were not, some Princes were Royal Highness, some Highness, some Serene Highness, and some just "Prince". Archdukes were Imperial and Royal Highness. Grand Dukes were Imperial Highness, Royal Highness or Grand Ducal Highness. A Count could be an Illustrious Highness, or nothing. And of course there are the mediatised Princes to be slotted in accurately!
And if you had two people of equal title, rank and stle, they would have to be differentialted by length of time (say, for a Sovereign Prince), or in what year did the Emperor admit the family to the College of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and at what
level of Prince they were admitted.
Which of course is no different to us saying that the Duke of Norfolk is the Premier Duke and Earl of England because his dukedom was created in 1483, before anyone else.
Everybody knew their own place in relation to everyone else, and if an error was made, there were plenty of people around who would have noticed. It would certainly have minimised disputes over the grandstand seating, or which Prince entered a room before another Prince.
These myriad rules, designed to ensure proper respect where it was due and to prevent arguments over who was the more "important", is the forerunner of the modern protocol of today. Still rigidly structured, but with allowance made for real-politik realities.
No one wants their Diplomatic State Function to dissolve into a series of petty and acrimonious disputes over the seating plan!
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