The Prince of Wales Feathers

The three gathered plumes of the Prince of Wales Feathers is a well-known motif, probably because of the famous pieces of jewelry featuring the design and owned by Wallis, Duchess of Windsor and later Elizabeth Taylor, as well as Diana, Princess of Wales and now Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.  The emblem and its motto are one of the oldest associated with the British Royal Family that are still in use, along with the three lions rampant of the Plantagenet family itself.

A feather emblem is associated with the first English Prince of Wales, Edward, the Black Prince, 1330-1376.  Edward used a shield of three silver feathers on a black field as his peace shield or tournament shield, as opposed to the royal arms, which would have been used in combat or for other purposes.  There are various legends for how he came by the design for his peace shield, one being that he defeated King John of Bohemia in a joust and took over the King's feathered helmet along with his motto of "Ich Dien".  In fact, King John used vultures wings as his personal emblem and the Ich Dien phrase may have come from an earlier association with Wales.  Ich dien, German for I Serve, sounds a lot like Eich Dyn, meanng Your Man.  According to another, more believable legend, Edward III had presented his son, who is also known as Edward of Caernarvon, from being born at Caernarvon Castle, to the Welsh people with the phrase, "your man" or some equivalent.  Over time, Eich Dyn became Ich Dien, probably during the 17th century, and stayed that way.

The feather emblem itself may have had associations with Edward's mother's family, Philippa of Hainault.  Feathers as a heraldic symbol first appeared at the wedding of Philippa and Edward III.  The Counts of Luxembourg, through whom Philippa was descended, also used a feather emblem.  From there, many members of the English royal family adopted various forms of the feather, including the Black Prince's brother, John of Gaunt, Edward's biological son Roger de Clarendon, as well as the future King Richard II.  Henry IV adopted the badge with the motto Ma Sovereign, meaning basically I am the Sovereign.  Henry V and his brothers including John, Duke of Bedford, Thomas, Duke of Clarence and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester also used feather emblems.

Three feathers gathered into a plume was first used as a badge by Arthur, the son of Henry VII Tudor and a Plantagenet on his mother's side.  Prince Edward, the son of Henry VIII also used the 3-feathered emblem, as did Elizabeth 1.  It wasn't until the 17th century when the three feathers and the motto became exclusively associated with the Prince of Wales.  Today, the feathers are often used by Regiments which have an association with Wales or the Prince of Wales.  During World War I, there was some though of reverting Ich Dien to Eich Dyn to get rid of the German origin of the phrase, but that was never carried out and the motto remains Ich Dien to this day.  Perhaps in a bout of wishful thinking on behalf of her husband, Wallis, Duchess of Windsor had a design of the Prince of Wales Feathers made into a brooch, which was auctioned at her death and bought by Elizabeth Taylor, current whereabouts of the jewel are unknown.  Princess Diana owned a necklace with a diamond encrusted Prince of Wales Feathers emblem and a jeweled drop.  Camilla sometimes wears the piece, along with a diamond-encrusted feather brooch of her own.