When should we capitalise ranks and titles?

Do we write the king or the King, professor or Professor, prime minister or Prime Minister?

When I copy-edit books, Capital Letters jump out at me as if they’re bold and underlined. Straightaway, I ask, ​Is the capitalisation essential here? Often in the case of ranks and titles, the answer is, No.

Spotting unnecessary capitals

Take a look at the following passage:

According to local legend, the Knight Gallad had once rescued a Princess from the tower, after she was taken captive by an evil Lord. The King had sent Soldiers to free the Princess, but even his best Sergeants and Captains had failed. The Queen, beside herself at the thought of her beloved daughter locked up with the dastardly Lord, convinced the King to put up a handsome reward for the safe return of the Princess. Knights and peasants alike tried to scale the tower; even the King’s Chancellor and Treasurer had a try. But none could reach the Princess. Until along came Gallad, a Knight from the neighbouring realm, and his invention: an extendable ladder. He returned to the King’s court with the severed head of the Lord, but not the Princess – for upon escaping the tower, she had gone off to pursue her dream: of becoming a Minstrel.

Setting aside for a moment the dubious quality of the tale itself, consider the capitalisation in the passage. We have:

• Knight (x 2)

• Princess (x 5)

• Lord (x 3)

• King (x 4)

• Soldiers

• Sergeants

• Captains

• Chancellor

• Treasurer

• Minstrel

… all crammed into one paragraph. That’s a lot of words with initial caps. Imagine a whole book styled in this way; it would be a pretty laborious read.

Now take a look at this version:

According to local legend, the knight Gallad had once rescued a princess from the tower, after she was taken captive by an evil lord. The king had sent soldiers to free the princess, but even his best sergeants and captains had failed. The queen, beside herself at the thought of her beloved daughter locked up with the dastardly lord, convinced the king to put up a handsome reward for the safe return of the princess. Knights and peasants alike tried to scale the tower; even the king’s chancellor and treasurer had a try. But none could reach the princess. Until along came Gallad, a knight from the neighbouring realm, and his invention: an extendable ladder. He returned to the king’s court with the severed head of the lord, but not the princess – for upon escaping the tower, she had gone off to pursue her dream: of becoming a minstrel.

The passage is exactly the same, but with those words that don’t need to be capitalised taken down to lower case. Do you see the difference? It’s an easier, smoother read.

The simple rule for capitalisation

Capitalisation is, to a certain degree, a style choice. But most editors opt for this style rule:

Captitalise a title or rank only when it’s used before a name, as a name or in a form of address.

So, for example, we have:

• Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a speech. But: The prime minister, Keir Starmer, made a speech.

• Professor Lewis looked out of the window. But: The professor looked out of the window.

• Captain Clarke gave the order. But: The captain gave the order.

• ‘Stop, General!’ she said. But: She told the general to stop.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s a pretty simple rule to apply. But of course, this being the English language, ​there can be...

... exceptions to the rule

Perhaps the idea of not capitalising a particular rank or title just doesn’t sit right with you. Perhaps referring to Charles III as the king, for example, seems... well, disrespectful.

In that case, go ahead and break the rule! If you’re writing about an important figure, you can choose to capitalise their rank or title in all references as a mark of respect. The BBC News style guide, for example, capitalises the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope and the King (with reference to our current monarch), and the Oxford University style guide capitalises university job titles, as does the Cambridge University style guide. The British government style guide capitalises specific governmental job titles (but minimises the use of capitalisation in general).​​

A final thought

​Ultimately, whatever capitalisation style you apply for ranks and titles, what matters most is consistency. If Charles is the king on page one, then we expect him to remain the king (not the King) throughout the book, and we expect Camilla to be the queen (not the Queen) to match with this style.

And if in doubt... step away from the Caps Lock / Shift keys.