Princess of Wales

The Princess of Wales is a title held by the wife of the Prince of Wales. The title has never been held by a woman in her own right (suo jure).

Although not granted the title in her own right, the future Queen Mary I was, during her youth, invested by her father, King Henry VIII, with many of the rights and properties traditionally given to the Prince of Wales, including use of the official seal of Wales for correspondence. For most of her childhood, Mary was her father's only legitimate heir, and for this reason, she was often referred to as "the Princess of Wales", although Henry never formally created her as such. For example, Spanish scholar Juan Luis Vives dedicated his Satellitium Animi to "Dominæ Mariæ Cambriæ Principi, Henrici Octavi Angliæ Regis Filiæ".[2]

Welsh politicians suggested Princess Elizabeth be made Princess of Wales on her 18th birthday, but King George VI rejected the idea because he felt such a title belonged solely to the wife of a Prince of Wales and the Prince of Wales had always been the heir apparent.[3]

The Princess of Wales, by virtue of her marriage to the Prince of Wales, takes on the feminine equivalent of her husband's titles. Thus, she is known as the Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, the Duchess of Cornwall in the far south west of England, and as the Countess of Chester in Cheshire.

Several consorts of Welsh princes of Wales were theoretically princesses of Wales while their husbands were in power. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth's consort, Joan, Lady of Wales, used that title in the 1230s; Isabella de Braose and Elizabeth Ferrers were likewise married to princes of Wales, but it is not known if they assumed a title in light of their husbands' status.

The only consort of a Welsh prince definitively shown to have used the title was Eleanor de Montfort, the English bride of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales. Eleanor died shortly after giving birth to their only child, Gwenllian, who was taken prisoner as an infant following her father's death. Gwenllian was the only native Welsh princess to be described as Princess of Wales; Edward I had her raised in Sempringham Priory in Lincolnshire, far from where any Welsh rebels could find her, and once appealed to the Pope to increase funds to the priory by writing that "...herein is kept the Princess of Wales, whom we have to maintain."[4]

Cecily Neville, wife of Richard, Duke of York, is omitted from this list. Although her husband Richard of York was briefly given various titles, including Prince of Wales, by an Act of Parliament as part of his arrangement to succeed Henry VI as king instead of Henry's own son, he is not generally recognised as such and is not mentioned in any published summary of the topic.

Person	Previous name	Birth	Marriage	Became Princess of Wales	Spouse	Change in style	Death
	Joan, Countess of Kent	19 September 1328	10 October 1361		Edward the Black Prince	7 June 1376 (husband's death)	7 August 1385
	Lady Anne Neville	11 June 1456	13 December 1470		Edward of Westminster	4 May 1471 (husband's death)	16 March 1485
	Infanta Catherine of Aragon	16 December 1485	14 November 1501		Arthur, Prince of Wales	2 April 1502 (husband's death)	7 January 1536
	Princess Caroline of Ansbach	1 March 1683	22 August 1705	27 September 1714	George Augustus of Brunswick and Lüneburg	11 June 1727 (husband's accession)	20 November 1737
	Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg	30 November 1719	17 April 1736		Frederick, Prince of Wales	31 March 1751 (husband's death)	8 February 1772
	Princess Caroline of Brunswick	17 May 1768	8 April 1795		George, Prince of Wales	29 January 1820 (husband's accession)	7 August 1821
	Princess Alexandra of Denmark	1 December 1844	10 March 1863		Albert Edward, Prince of Wales	22 January 1901 (husband's accession)	20 November 1925
	Princess Mary of Teck	26 May 1867	6 July 1893	9 November 1901	George, Prince of Wales	6 May 1910 (husband's accession)	24 March 1953
	Lady Diana Spencer	1 July 1961	29 July 1981		Charles, Prince of Wales	28 August 1996 (divorce) then titled Diana, Princess of Wales	31 August 1997
	Camilla Parker Bowles	17 July 1947	9 April 2005 (known as Duchess of Cornwall)			incumbent

• The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment)
• The Princess of Wales' Own Regiment (Canada)

• Princesses of Wales by Deborah Fisher. University of Wales Press, 2005.
• 'Tystiolaeth Garth Celyn' Y Traethodydd 1998 ISSN 0969-8930

• Fryer, M.; Mary Beacock Fryer; Arthur Bousfield; Garry Toffoli (1983). Lives of the Princesses of Wales. Toronto: Dundern Press Limited. ISBN 978-0-919670-69-3.