The Duchess of Sussex has been granted her own coat of arms by the Queen, as she chooses the blue skies of California and a songbird emblem of communication to represent her in married life.
The Duchess, who helped to design the image, holds the coat of arms in her own right with no input from her father, who as an American does not have his own coat of arms.
Instead, she has chosen her own symbols, with a white songbird as her “supporter” to stand opposite the lion representing her husband and his family.
Just as her presence brought American emblems to the vellum of the Instrument of Consent before her marriage, the coat of arms is infused with transatlantic symbols.
The Duke is represented with his own coat of arms on the left-hand side, granted on his 18th birthday, which includes both his Royal family lineage and the small, red escallops of his mother’s family.
The decision to grant the Duchess a coat of arms in her own right follows a model set by the Duchess of Gloucester when she married into the Royal Family in 1972 after being born in Denmark.
More usually, the coat of arms belonging to a Royal bride impale the emblem of her own family with that of her husband to form a new image.
