Royal consort

For other uses, see Consort (disambiguation).

A royal consort is a person granted official status through an intimate relationship, often through marriage or concubinage, with a monarch.^[1] The term originates from the Latin consors, meaning "partner", and can be used in everyday English as a synonym for that word, and as a verb meaning "to associate".^[2] As it pertains to royalty, the term "has its roots in seventeenth-century vocabulary in both New England and England", where it was initially used to mean simply a spouse.^[3] It has since been extended to encompass similar relationships with other significant figures, such as a head of state.

It has been recently noted that consort, "though literally denoting a partner or spouse, is a heavily loaded term, for a consort is usually implied to be a mere appendage, far inferior in power and status to his or her spouse".^[4] In invitations for the 2023 coronation of King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla, for example, the British royal family notably styled Camilla as "The Queen" instead of "Queen Consort".^[5][6]

Uses of the term in royal contexts include:

• Queen consort, wife of a reigning king^[7]
• Prince consort, husband of a reigning queen^[8]
• King consort, rarely used alternative title for husband of a reigning queen^[9]
• Princess consort, rarely used alternative title for wife of a reigning king^[10]

The spouses of governors-general of some Commonwealth countries, such as Canada, are sometimes referred to as "viceregal consort".^[11][12][13]

In certain polytheistic religions such as Hinduism, female analogues to the main deities have been described as consorts.^[14]