What was the correct title of English Kings and Queen?

Question

I have found different title wording and am not sure which one is corrent. I know that after Henry 8th English kings used the title Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the Church but i know that after ELizabeth the 1st the used Supreme Governor of the Church. I need to know what was the Proper and formal title of the English crown

Answer 1

Fidei defensor or Defender of the Faith has been one of the subsidiary titles of the English (and later British Monarchs since it was granted on October 17, 1521 by Pope Leo X to Tudor King Henry VIII of England (some other major Catholic Kingdoms have obtained similar pious titles, such as Apostolic King).

The title was then in recognition of Henry's book Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (Defence of the Seven Sacraments), written with the uncredited assistance of Thomas More, which defended the sacramental nature of marriage and the supremacy of the Pope. This was also known as the "Henrician Affirmation" and was seen as an important opposition to the early stages of the Protestant Reformation, especially the ideas of Martin Luther.

When the Tudor king broke with Rome and established himself as head of the Church of England, from the papal point of view the worst attack on the faith (or rather, and more to the point, on the Catholic Church) since Luther, the title was revoked by Pope Paul III.

However, the English parliament conferred the title in 1544 on King Edward VI and his successors, now the defenders of the Anglican faith, of which they (except the Roman Catholic 'renegade' Mary Tudor) still are the Supreme Governors (formally above the Archbishop of Canterbury as Primate), and mainly against Roman Catholicism, so the inverse of the original papal grant. Although the two Cromwells (16 December 1653 - 30 January 1659), while republican heads of state styled Lord Protector, were clearly profiled as more Protestant than the Monarchy, they did not adopt the style Defender of the Faith, which thus had a hiatus till the Stuart Restoration.

The Latin version of the title, Fidei Defensor, abbreviated to FD, is still seen on all current British coins. It was first placed on coins in 1714 in the reign of King George I.

Her Majesty is "by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith." She is also "Supreme Governor of the Church of England".

Answer 2

Elizabeth's full royal title is:

"Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith"

"Supreme Governor of the Church of England" is a technically separate title also held by the monarch. She is also "Duchess of Edinburgh, Countess of Merioneth and Baroness Greenwich", and Queen of a number of Commonwealth countries.