List of Titles and Honours of Queen Elizabeth II - Royal Titles and Styles

Royal Titles and Styles

• 21 April 1926 – 11 December 1936: Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York
• 11 December 1936 – 20 November 1947: Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth
• 20 November 1947 – 6 February 1952: Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh
• 6 February 1952 – present: Her Majesty The Queen

Upon Elizabeth's accession to the throne, she was asked by her Private Secretary what her regnal name would be, to which the Queen responded, "My own, of course—what else?" Until 1953, her official style and title in full was Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen, Defender of the Faith. In London, she was proclaimed as Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

A decision was reached by Elizabeth's prime ministers at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference of 1953, whereby the Queen would accord herself different styles and titles in each of her realms, reflecting that in each state she acted as monarch of that particular country, regardless of her other roles. Thus, separate but parallel royal styles and titles acts were passed in the United Kingdom and each of the then Dominions of the British Commonwealth, granting Elizabeth a distinct but similarly constituted title in each state, meaning that when Elizabeth was crowned in the same year, she held seven separate titles. With further evolution of the Commonwealth since that time, Elizabeth now holds sixteen different regnal titles, one for each of the Commonwealth realms, as listed below. Traditionally, her titles as queen regnant are listed in the order in which the remaining original realms first became Dominions of the Crown: the United Kingdom (original dominion), Canada (1867), Australia (1901), and New Zealand (1907), followed by the rest in the order in which the former colony became an independent realm: Jamaica (1962), Barbados (1966), the Bahamas (1973), Grenada (1974), Papua New Guinea (1975), the Solomon Islands (1978), Tuvalu (1978), Saint Lucia (1979), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1979), Antigua and Barbuda (1981), Belize (1981), and Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983).

Though the situation was the same in every one of the Queen's realms beyond the United Kingdom, only within, in Scotland, did the title Elizabeth II cause controversy as there had never been an Elizabeth I in Scotland. In an act of sabotage, new Royal Mail post boxes in Scotland, bearing the royal cypher ER, were vandalised, after which, to avoid further problems, post boxes and Royal Mail vehicles in Scotland bore only the Crown of Scotland. A legal case, MacCormick v. Lord Advocate (1953 SC 396), was taken to contest the right of the Queen to title herself Elizabeth II within Scotland, arguing that to do so would be a breach of the Act of Union. The case, however, was lost on the grounds that the pursuers had not title to sue the Crown and the numbering of monarchs was part of the Royal Prerogative, and thus not governed by the Act of Union. It was suggested by Winston Churchill that future British monarchs should be numbered according to either their English or Scottish predecessors, whichever number is higher; equivalent rules have not, however, been applied in the other Commonwealth realms.

Less publicised controversies included the argument that the monarch was addressed as Your Grace in the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland (the monarchs of Renaissance England had been called both "Your Grace" and "Your Majesty") and that the preferred title had been King/Queen of Scots rather than of Scotland. At the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, Lord Steel, MSP, the Presiding Officer, referred to Elizabeth II as "not only the Queen of the United Kingdom but seated as you are among us in the historic and constitutionally correct manner as Queen of Scots." In 2002 Winnie Ewing, president of the Scottish National Party wrote to the Queen asking her to adopt the title "Elizabeth I" in Scotland.