Coat of Arms of the Duchess of Cornwall

A new Coat of Arms for Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall was shown to the world on 17th July 2005 by Clarence House to mark her 58th birthday. The Queen has authorised this crest, as indeed she has to authorise all crests of members of the Royal Family.

The crest shows both the Coat of Arms of Prince Charles, and of her father, Major Bruce Shand. On the left hand side of the central shield is the Royal lion Supporter of The Prince of Wales while on the right-hand side is a boar taken from Major Shand’s Crest. Apart from the boar supporter (reflecting her paternal arms) for the sinister side, the arms are entirely consistent with the historical heraldic apertaining to a married woman who is not herself a heraldic heiress.

The Shield itself is divided in two down the centre.

To the left are the Arms of The Prince of Wales, which show the Royal Arms, but with two small differentiations from the Queen's. Firstly, there is a white label with three points at the top of the shield And secondly, there is an inexcutcheon with the Arms of the Principality of Wales that is surmounted by an Heir Apparent’s single arched Coronet. As wife to the Heir Apparent, she is entitled to use her husband's arms in her own Coat of Arms in this way, according to the Royal Warrant of King Charles II, dated 9th February 1661.

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