The Duchess Dictionary: Coat of Arms

The Duchess of Cambridge was granted her own coat of arms by the Queen, following her marriage to the Duke of Cambridge in April 2011.

The Duchess of Cambridge's coat of arms.

The design shows a shield with the left half derived from the Duke of Cambridge’s coat of arms and the right half from the Middleton family coat of arms, granted to Catherine's father Michael shortly before the Royal Wedding; in heraldic terms, this is known as an impaled coat of arms.
The Duke of Cambridge was given his own coat of arms to mark his 18th birthday in 2000.

The Duke of Cambridge's coat of arms.

The coat of arms used by the Duchess prior to her wedding, displayed on a "lozenge" suspended from a ribbon as befits an umarried daughter.

The Middleton coat of arms was granted to Michael Middleton before the Royal Wedding, and was designed at the College of Arms in London.

The three acorns represent Mr. and Mrs. Middleton’s three children (Catherine, Philippa and James). Acorns were chosen because the area in which the children were brought up, West Berkshire,  is surrounded by oak trees. Additionally, oak is a long-established symbol of both ‘England’ and ‘Strength.’

The gold chevron, which sits at the centre of the design, represents Mrs. Middleton, whose maiden name is Goldsmith. The two thinner white chevrons, which sit either side of the gold chevron, allude to hills and mountains and represent outdoor pursuits that the family enjoy together. The colours blue and red were chosen as they are the principal colours from the flag of the United Kingdom.

Catherine carried this coat of arms into her marriage, to be placed beside that of her husband in what is known as an impaled coat of arms.



Following her marriage, the impaled shield is now supported by a lion, taken from Prince William's coat of arms, and a white hind (a female red deer) and is surmounted by the Duke of Cambridge’s coronet. This is the coronet laid down by a Royal Warrant of 1917 for the sons and daughters of the Heir Apparent.
The red escallop on the lion's neck is derived from the Spencer coat of arms, which has been used by Prince William's ancestors on his mother's side for many centuries.
The white hind has had a long tradition of connections to the Royal Family in England since the fourteenth century. It wears the Duke of Cambridge's coronet about its neck.

In addition to their own individual coats of arms, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a conjugal coat of arms which will represent them in heraldic terms as a married couple.

Conjugal coat of arms of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Designed by the College of Arms in London, conjugal arms traditionally show the separate shields of a Royal husband and wife, side by side.
The Duke’s shield on the left shows his version of the Royal coat of arms granted to him by the Queen on his 18th birthday, surrounded by a blue garter bearing the motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense"('Shame to those who think evil of it'), which symbolises the Order of the Garter, of which he is a Knight Companion. On the right, The Duchess’s shield is from the Middleton family coat of arms, granted to the family in 2011 ahead of her marriage, and is surrounded by a wreath of oak, to balance visually her husband's garter. This is traditional for Royal Spouses who are not themselves entitled to surround their Arms with an order of chivalry.

Additionally to the coat of arms, the Duchess also uses her monogram on her correspondance, a letter "C" surmounted by her husband's coronet:

Catherine owns a gold chain bracelet with disk pendant emblazoned with her monogram on one side and the Duchess of Cornwall's monogram on the other, which was a gift from her step-mother-in-law and which she wore very frequently in the early days of her marriage.

The two sides of the disc, with Catherine's (left) and Camilla's monogram (right).

Intriguing India - Part IV: The Queen's 1983 and 1997 State Visits

As we mentioned in our latest post in the Intriguing India series, the Queen has visited India only three times during the course of her reign. Her first historic visit came in 1961 and has already been discussed - today the focus will be on the subsequent visits, in 1983 and 1997 (for the other posts in the series, see here and here).

The 1983 State visit on the invitation of the Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, and was timed to coincide with the 7th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in New Delhi. The Queen remained in the country from 17 to 26 November and met President Zali Singh, as well as the Prime Minister:

 

During the visit, a special ceremony took place at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India in New Delhi, during which the Queen invested Mother Teresa of Calcutta as an honorary member of the Order of Merit:

  

 

The following images were taken at a State banquet in New Delhi in 18 November. The Queen is seen wearing Queen Alexandra's Kokoshnik tiara and the sapphire and diamond earrings and necklace that were a wedding present from her parents:

 

 

At another banquet, part of the Brazilian aquamarine parure was worn:

 

 

The Queen in New Delhi, wearing the round Cambridge emerald brooch with pendant; she is seen below being assisted in removing her shoes for a visit to lay at wreath at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial in Delhi, a landmark that's sure to feature on the Duke and Duchess' itinerary.

 

 

 

The Queen visited also the Indian National Defence Academy in Pune (below, wearing the Russian sapphire and diamond cluster brooch). 

 

 

Below, the Queen, in a Frederick Fox hat and Hardy Amies dress, watches a display of traditional dancing in the village of Devara Yamzal, near Hyderabad:

 

Some more fancy millinery from the tour:

 

 

Among the unusual forms of transport used by the Queen, there's this 'Palki', a type of sedan chair, which she rode during the 1983 tour:

 

 

Fourteen years later, in 1997, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh paid their third visit (and almost certainly last, given how the couple are scaling back significantly on long-haul travel) to the country to mark the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence.

During a speech given at the State banquet in New Delhi on 13 October, the Queen's praised India's vital contribution to the Commonwealth, saying:

 

Like Britain, India has always been a country which is open to other cultures, and able to accept and assimilate them in a constructive way. This is one of the many reasons why India is such a vital and distinguished member of the Commonwealth.

 

The Queen inspecting an Indian Forces' honour guard at the Presidential Palace at the start of her visit:

 

 

During their visit, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Golden Temple at Amritsar, where they were presented with a ceremonial sword and a model of the temple in painted wood and gold leaf:

 

 

Being presented with a pot from an Untouchable at St Francis Church in Kochi:

  

 

 

The Queen also toured a Bollywood film set:

 

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited again the Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi's cremation site in New Delhi:

I hope you enjoyed this recap of the Queen's visits to India. I'll see you very soon with a new post on more royal visits to India - including those of the Prince and Princess of Wales back in 1990s!

Intriguing India - Part III: The Last Days of the Empire and the Queen's First Visit in 1961

After the first two posts in our series exploring the relationship between the British Monarchy and India (which can be found here and here), it's now time to take a look at the years before and around the Partition, and the role played by the Queen in the early days of the Commonwealth.

Queen George V and Queen Mary, as recalled in our previous post, paid just one visit to the Subcontinent, on the occasion of the 1911 Delhi Durbar. Their son, Edward VIII, who reigned for just under a year in 1936, despite formally holding the title of Emperor of India, was never crowned and had far more serious constitutional troubles to think about in his short reign to even think about overseas tours, so a visit to India as sovereign was always going to be off the cards for him.
He did, however, visit between 1921 and 1922 when Prince of Wales. It was during this visit that he took part in a spot of tiger hunting, something we can all safely guess won't feature in the official program of the 2016 tour! :)

 

 

The present Queen's parents were, of course, the last Emperor and Empress of India, as British India became the two separate countries of India and Pakistan in 1947, during the reign of George VI. After Edward VIII's abdication in December 1936, it was initally envisaged that his successor would visit India and have his own Durbar. However, the Indian National Congress passed a motion calling for a boycott of any such visit. In a speech in October 1937, the King said: "I am looking forward with interest and pleasure to the time when it will be possible for Me to visit My Indian Empire".

It was a time of momentous historical change, and the King and Queen eventually never did get a chance to make this visit. Hugo Vickers, in his biography Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, recalls the Queen's regret at not visiting India.

 

The connection with the country remained strong, however. For the wedding of Princess Elizabeth in 1947, several gifts of Indian provenance were delivered to the happy couple, including a somewhat unusual piece of lace homespun by Mahatma Gandhi himself with the words "Jai Hind", which means "Freedom to India". Queen Mary was told to be less than impressed with the gift, mistaking it for a loincloth of the type Gandhi used to wear and reportedly remarking: "Such an indelicate gift. What a horrible thing."

 

 

Other gifts of Indian provenance included a diamond and platinum Cartier necklace presented by the Nizam of Hyderabad (a piece that has already been loaned to the Duchess of Cambridge in February 2014 and could likely make a reappearance on the tour), plus a number of rarely, if ever seen pieces of jewellery, for which we only have the succint description available in the official Royal Wedding gift list published at the time, including two pairs of jewelled anklets set with brillants and enamel drops mounted as a necklace, presented by the Dominion of India and an antique Rajput headpiece of gold set with pearls, rubies and diamonds, presented by Maharao Raja of Bundi and that has subsequently been mounted as a brooch.

 

The first of three official visits paid by Queen Elizabeth II to India came early in 1961, for a six-week tour of both India and Pakistan. Leaving behind the cold and gloom of London, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh departed from Heathrow Airport on 21 January 1961 and were seen by (a very glamourous) Princess Margaret, her husband the Earl of Snowdon and the Queen Mother:

 

 

 

As the first visit from a reigning British monarch after the Independence, it was a historic occasion and Her Majesty received a warm welcome. At Ramlila Grounds in Delhi the Queen addressed a crowd estimated to number a quarter of a million people, to this day still one of the best-attended public speeches of all times. True to her style, the Queen spoke a few words in Hindi to express her thanks, to the delight of the crowd:

 

 

The 1961 tour provided some fabulous photo opportunities - riding a gaily decorated elephant in Benares:

 

Posing in front of the Taj Mahal with the Duke of Edinburgh, decades before the iconic Princess Diana photograph:

A lot of fab 1960s fashion:

 

 

With India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

 

 

 

Another tiger hunt took place during the 1961 tour. Discovering this material while I was researching this post came as quite a surprise to me, and it just goes to show how far environmental sensibilities have come in just a few decades. I suspect this time around there will be a strong focus placed on conservation, one of the Duke of Cambridge's strongest personal interest:

Carefully examining a gigantic floral garland presented to her in Madras.

Attending a fashion show organized by the wives of diplomats at the Central Cottage Industries in Delhi.

 

On the first evening of the visit, President Rajendra Prasad gave a State banquet in the Queen's honour, for which she wore the pearl-encrusted evening dress by Norman Hartnell seen below. The dress was made of fine lace, richly embroidered with pearls, sequins and bugle beads in a design of lotus flowers - the national flower of India (again, I can very well see the Lotus Flower - or Papyrus - tiara worn on tour by the Duchess should a tiara-wearing occasion arise!). As you can see, the dress originally had a train falling from the shoulders, but this was subsequently altered and made into a matching bolero jacket. The Queen is seen wearing Queen Alexandra's Kokoshnik tiara, her ruby and diamond floral bandeu necklace (part of the Greville bequest and a wedding present from her parents) and Queen Mary's ruby cluster earrings:

 

 

 

 

Leaving the glitz and glamour of the 1960s behind, we'll be back very soon with a new post covering the other two official visits made by the Queen to India, in 1983 and 1997! See you very soon!