Why does "Your grace" use "Your"?

Question

I know the meaning of this expression, but I want to know how it got what it means.

When we say "My lord", it's really obvious what we're talking about: somebody is my lord. I couldn't come up with a similar argument about "Your grace". On a comment on another question, "Your majesty" (which might be a similar usage) was related to "you, who are majestic". Is that it? Is there any rule to connect the dots between such phrases and what they actually mean and how they're constructed? And how's that a title for someone; Your grace? That's strange.

Why isn't it "The grace"? What's the role of "Your" to make a title? How does putting "your" before "grace" make a title? Can't figure out the structure.

I'm just looking for why we use that phrase as a title or an addressing and how we got to that phrase, not the "grace" alone, but "your grace".

Lambie · Answer

This is from the OED:

Chiefly with capital initial. a. With a possessive adjective: a title of respect, esp. for a person of royal or noble rank. Frequently
  (in your Grace) as a form of address. Now archaic or hist. Formerly
  (in England until the reign of Henry VIII and in Scotland until 1707)
  used for a monarch or prince; now replaced by Majesty or Highness (see
  majesty n. 2, highness n. 2b).

b. spec. As the title given to a duke, duchess, or archbishop. (Now
  the only non-historical use.)

Here is a snippet from the etymology of it (which is very long) from there:
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman grase, graze, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French grace, Anglo-Norman and Middle French grasse (Middle French, French grâce ) favour, benevolence, an instance or manifestation of favour, (specifically) the benevolent influence and favour shown by God to mankind (all end of the 11th cent.), (chiefly in plural) thanks (1135), talent, virtue (second half of the 12th cent.), (in plural) prayer of thanksgiving after a meal (c1160), pardon, mercy, forgiveness [etc. etc.]

With the idea of the divine right of kings is also the idea of By the Grace of God.

The only person above a king was God. And the kings were also subject to God's Grace, in that sense they were like all others. So, I suppose that historically, there came a time when this identification of the king as having God's "special" grace was turned into a form of address.

Why does "Your grace" use "Your"?

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