Royal Families

		"Princess Di" IN THE MARCH 1997 ISSUE of this magazine, in a detailed explanation of why Diana, Princess of Wales is no longer a princess and why Sarah, Duchess of York is no longer a duchess, Diana's lost right to the use of her ex-husband's famous badge was mentioned also, with the prediction that in future her writing paper would probably feature her father's arms displayed on an heraldic lozenge.

We did not foresee just how quickly The Sunday Times (9th March) would be able to report that Diana "has just given herself a new logo" and to reproduce a copy for its readers to admire. (If the editor had not been quite so quick his researchers would have had more time to check the accuracy of his reporter's terminology ~ seldom can so many heraldic errors have been crowded into a single paragraph. The Prince of Wales's feathers are used as an heraldic badge, not "a monogram" ~ which is a combination of two or more letters intertwined; it is manifestly inappropriate in this specific context to suggest the "D" is "crowned" with a coronet; the combination of the "D" and the coronet cannot constitute "a monogram" ~ it is a stylised heraldic badge; and the coronet is not "that of the Spencer family" or anything like it.)

What is this coronet then, if it is not a crown and not the coronet of the Spencer earls? Here The Sunday Times did have a story, but missed it.

Diana, Princess of Wales (who was once HRH The Princess of Wales but never Princess Diana*) has, if the report in The Sunday Times is based on fact, adopted an heraldic badge that proclaims her to be not merely a princess (which she has not been since her divorce), but to be the daughter or sister of the sovereign. HRH The Princess Royal, her aunt, HRH Princess Margaret, and her two younger brothers, Andrew and Edward, alone have the right to use that coronet** at the present time. (In interpreting Diana's message as being a serious warning never to "mistake this lady for anything other than top-deck royal" The Sunday Times may well be absolutely accurate, but Diana herself is wrong. Diana is not even lower-deck royal.)

Those who noted the reference last month to the Earl of Surrey losing his head for an heraldic claim to royalty will already have recognised that this lady is most fortunate she lives today and not in the age of the Tudors. Her flaunted admission of infidelity would then have sent her to the block for treason (still technically the law today). With the Surrey precedent to guide the court, she would have become the first royal wife to be executed in England for two separate capital offences.

We read that "The Duchess of York" is to become a columnist for The New York Times ~ and, of course, we assume the report refers to Sarah, Duchess of York. Do newspaper editors interviewing her for employment actually ask her if she is a duchess? If they do, why, when obviously she denies she is a duchess, is she described as a duchess in subsequent reports?

But perhaps the reports are unfounded and Sarah is about to retire from public life with quiet dignity.

*From page 9 of Honours and Titles published in 1992 by HMSO (the British Government's own publishers) ~

"The wife of the Prince of Wales is The Princess of Wales. The wife of Prince Charles, the former Lady Diana Spencer, should always be referred to as such, never as 'Princess Diana'."

**The coronets illustrated here show the significant differences of rank. First it should be noted that the modern coronet consists of the ancient golden circlet combined with the chapeau, or cap of maintenance, of crimson velvet edged with ermine. In heraldic representation the golden circlet is sometimes used alone (as in Diana's badge). In mediaeval times the circlet was bejewelled, but today only the crown and the coronet of the monarch's eldest son (shown here on the right) have jewels. All other princes and princesses, together with the peers and peeresses, have the circlet chased to represent the appearance of jewels, but this decoration remains uncoloured. (The coronet of the monarch's eldest son is the only one to have a single arch. This is today most usually illustrated across the picture, but it may sometimes be seen, as here, at a right angle to the plane of the picture. The crown, of course, has two intersecting arches.)

The rank of a coronet's wearer is denoted by the decoration above the rim. The coronets of the monarch's other children show crosses patée alternately with fleurs-de-lys, this being the arrangement also for both the monarch's oldest son and the crown itself. (The use of the term "monarch's oldest son" in these descriptions, instead of the more usual "Prince of Wales" is owed to the special coronet being his in right of his position as heir to the throne, not, as often stated, in right of the Principality of Wales.)

The grandchildren of the monarch (and, of course, the grandchildren of previous monarchs) have the outer crosses patée (as the coronet is usually portrayed in illustration) replaced by strawberry leaves as shown here.

It should perhaps be stressed that the fine distinctions described in these paragraphs are not the invention of modern bureaucrats ~ they were defined by Royal Warrant in the reign of Charles II.

Royal Families in the earlier issue

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