The Prince of Wales's feathers are the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales, the heir to the British throne. The badge consists of three white ostrich feathers encircled by a gold coronet. A ribbon below the coronet bears the German motto (, "I serve"). As well as being used in royal heraldry, the feathers are sometimes used to symbolise Wales itself, particularly in Welsh rugby union and Welsh regiments of the British Army.
Bearers of the motif
The feathers are the badge of the heir apparent to the British throne regardless of whether or not the Prince of Wales title is held.
House of Plantagenet
The ostrich feathers heraldic motif is generally traced back to Edward, the Black Prince (1330–1376), eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. The Black Prince bore (as an alternative to his paternal arms) a shield of Sable, three ostrich feathers argent, described as his "shield for peace", probably meaning the shield he used for jousting. These arms appear several times on his chest tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, alternating with his paternal arms (the royal arms of King Edward III differenced by a label of three points argent). The Black Prince also used heraldic badges of one or more ostrich feathers in various other contexts.
The feathers had first appeared at the time of the marriage of Edward III to Philippa of Hainault, and Edward III himself occasionally used ostrich feather badges. It is therefore likely that the Black Prince inherited the badge from his mother, descended from the Counts of Hainault, whose eldest son bore the title "Count of Ostrevent", the ostrich (, Old French spellings including ostruce) feathers being possibly an heraldic pun on that name. Alternatively, the badge may have derived from the Counts of Luxembourg, from whom Philippa was also descended, who had used the badge of an ostrich. Sir Roger de Clarendon, an illegitimate son of the Black Prince by his mistress Edith Willesford, bore arms of Or, on a bend sable three ostrich feathers argent.
King Richard II, the Black Prince's legitimate son, used ostrich feather badges in several colours and awarded augmented arms with ostrich feather supporters to Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk (1366–1399).
Legendary origins
According to a longstanding legend, the Black Prince obtained the badge from the blind King John of Bohemia, against whom he fought at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. After the battle, the prince is said to have gone to the body of the dead king, and taken his helmet with its ostrich feather crest, afterwards incorporating the feathers into his arms, and adopting King John's motto, "", as his own. The story first appears in writing in 1376, the year of the Black Prince's death. There is, however, no sound historical basis for it, and no evidence for King John having used either the motto or the crest (he actually bore a crest of vultures' wings). Nevertheless, King John was also Count of Luxembourg, whose badge was an ostrich feather as has been noted above. Therefore, the claim on the Black Prince's tomb that he had adopted the badge to honour the dead king's courage might well be true after all.
Since a key factor in the English army's victory at Crécy was the use of Welsh archers, it is also sometimes said to have been Edward's pride in the men of Wales which led him to adopt a symbol alluding to their assistance. The Freemen of Llantrisant claim that it was their ancestors (the Black Army) who killed King John of Bohemia and captured his ostrich-feather emblem. The medieval German motto "" ("I serve") is a near-homophone for the Welsh phrase "" meaning "Your Man", which might have helped endear the young Black Prince to the Welsh soldiers in particular. Again, however, there is no historical evidence to support this theory. In 1917, during the First World War, it was rumoured that the motto might be formally changed to "Eich Dyn" to avoid the use of German.
House of Lancaster
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, the Black Prince's second younger brother, used ostrich feathers in several contexts, including on a shield very similar to the Black Prince's "shield for peace", although in Gaunt's case the feathers were ermine. Single ostrich feather supporters were also used by John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (1404–1444) (as shown in his Garter stall plate in St George's Chapel), the second son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (1371–1410), the eldest of the four legitimized children of John of Gaunt by his mistress Katherine Swynford.