Honorific titles, ranks and capitalisation in text...

[Lucky_Lola]

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. The issue is when I should be capitalising the titles and/or honorific forms of address for nobility and ranking officers. I have always capitalised in direct address (your Grace, General So-And-So, my Lady etc), but my question is how to treat rank in straight text. Is there an established rule, or am I making mountains out of mole hills?

For example, should the POV character describe, "The Duke and the Princess..." or "The duke and the princess..."?

Thanks in advance

 

[Arkose]

It is a good question that I have thought about but never really cared about too much.

I don't know grammatically, but remembering prior stories and books, I don't think I have ever not seen King or General not capitalized. I would think that it holds true for all titles and ranks.

Hopefully someone with more experience can let us both know.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It depends. It's a style issue. Some writers do it one way and some the other. And then sometimes the copy editor goes through and changes it anyway because they're working from a style guide.

The way that I do it is to capitalize it whenever a specific person is mentioned, "The Duke and the Princess came into the room together," but when the reference is more general I use lower case, " a general has a responsibility to the army," "the three princesses looked lovely this afternoon."

But it's more common these days to only capitalize it in direct address, "How do you do, General," or when it is used with the name, "General Eisenhower."

Whichever way you decide to do it. You need to be consistent.
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[J Riff]

This particular textbook says: Capitalize all proper nouns, and titles when they accompany and are part of a proper name.
Do not capitalize titles that are immediately preceded by a proper name.>
Hello, Judge Joe Brown. Joe Brown is a judge.
Also, caps if used in place of a proper noun>
Is Aunt meeting you at the station?

 

[Lucky_Lola]

Thanks guys, its something that didn't bother me in the slightest when I was younger, but now that I'm working seriously on my WiP it sticks out like a sore thumb