HIGHNESS, literally the quality of being lofty or high, a term used, as are so many abstractions, as a title of dignity and honour, to signify exalted rank or station. These abstractions arose in great profusion in the Roman empire, both of the East and West, and "highness" is to be directly traced to the _altitudo_ and _celsitudo_ of the Latin and the [Greek: hypselotes] of the Greek emperors. Like other "exorbitant and swelling attributes" of the time, they were conferred on ruling princes generally. In the early middle ages such titles, couched in the second or third person, were "uncertain and much more arbitrary (according to the fancies of secretaries) than in the later times" (Selden, _Titles of Honour_, pt. i. ch. vii. 100). In English usage, "Highness" alternates with "Grace" and "Majesty," as the honorific title of the king and queen until the time of James I. Thus in documents relating to the reign of Henry VIII. all three titles are used indiscriminately; an example is the king's judgment against Dr Edward Crome (d. 1562), quoted, from the lord chamberlain's books, ser. 1, p. 791, in _Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc._ N.S. xix. 299, where article 15 begins with "Also the Kinges Highness" hath ordered, 16 with "Kinges Majestie," and 17 with "Kinges Grace." In the Dedication of the Authorized Version of the Bible of 1611 James I. is still styled "Majesty" and "Highness"; thus, in the first paragraph, "the appearance of Your Majesty, as of the Sun in his strength, instantly dispelled those supposed and surmised mists ... especially when we beheld the government established in Your Highness and Your hopeful Seed, by an undoubted title." It was, however, in James I.'s reign that "Majesty" became the official title. It may be noted that Cromwell, as lord protector, and his wife were styled "Highness." In present usage the following members of the British Royal Family are addressed as "Royal Highness" (H.R.H.): all sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts of the reigning sovereign, grandsons and granddaughters if children of sons, and also great grandchildren (decree of 31st of May 1898) if children of an eldest son of any prince of Wales. Nephews, nieces and cousins and grandchildren, offspring of daughters, are styled "Highness" only. A change of sovereign does not entail the forfeiture of the title "Royal Highness," once acquired, though the father of the bearer has become a nephew and not a grandson of the sovereign. The principal feudatory princes of the Indian empire are also styled "Highness."