Coat of Arms

The Duchess of Cambridge has a new Coat of Arms, following her marriage to The Duke of Cambridge.

The design shows a shield with one half derived from The Duke of Cambridge’s Coat of Arms and the other half from the Middleton family Coat of Arms, granted to Mr. Michael Middleton shortly before the Royal Wedding. The shield is supported by a lion and a white hind and is surmounted by The Duke of Cambridge’s Coronet.

The Queen personally approved the unique Coat of Arms for The Duchess of Cambridge by signing a Royal Warrant.

It is customary for individual versions of the Royal Arms with the Royal Supporters to be assigned by Royal Warrant to members of the Royal Family and for wives of members of the Royal Family to be granted one of their husband’s Supporters and one relating to themselves. The Supporter assigned to The Duchess of Cambridge is a white hind, which has had continuing Royal connections in England since the 14th Century. The lion is the Supporter of The Duke of Cambridge’s Coat of Arms.

Technical heraldic description

The technical heraldic description of The Duchess of Cambridge’s Supporters for her Coat of Arms, known as a ‘blazon’ is “To the dexter the Lion as borne and used as a Supporter by Our Dearly Beloved Grandson His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales Duke of Cambridge and to the sinister a Hind Argent unguled and gorged with a Coronet of Our Dearly Beloved Grandson’s degree Or”.

The hind is white (Argent) and is hooved (unguled) and has about its neck (is gorged) The Duke of Cambridge’s Coronet. Both the hooves and Coronet are gold (Or).

The Coronet is the same as that of her husband The Duke of Cambridge, which is at present a Coronet composed of two crosses patée, four fleurs-de-lys and two strawberry leaves. This is the Coronet laid down by a Royal Warrant of 1917 for the sons and daughters of the Heir Apparent.

The white hind has had a long tradition of connections to the Royal Family in England since the fourteenth century. It was the Badge of Joan of Kent (c. 1328-1385), Princess of Wales, better known as the Fair Maid of Kent.

In 1467 an inventory of ornaments and relics at Westminster Abbey included a red altar-cloth and frontal with gold lions and white hinds for the altar of King Henry V. In 1529 King Henry VIII had three hinds carved amongst the eighteen beasts at Hampton Court. The white hind contrasts with the white hart, the favourite Badge of the Fair Maid of Kent’s son Richard II.

The hart or stag is the male red deer and the hind the female. A hind is a forest dweller and stands well next to a Shield where acorns are the principal feature.