Missing royal coat of arms on Harry's and Meghan's new website explained
Harry and Meghan have a new website filled with updates on their life - but it doesn't feature their joint coat of arms.
Interestingly, the website displays Meghan's official coat of arms that she helped design instead.
Quietly launched last night, the site is filled with information on the patronages the couple holds and the causes they support as well as their business ventures, like Archewell Productions - through which they have produced shows like Heart of Invictus.
The insignia was created for the Duchess of Sussex back in 2018 when the couple got married and has not been seen much since they stepped back as working royals in 2020.
One royal blogger has claimed that the coat of arms that the couple have chosen to display on their new website has not been properly updated since Charles took the throne.
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At the top of Harry's shield is a white horizontal "label" with five "points" hanging from it, now that Harry is the son of the monarch there should be only three white points on his shield, rather than five. According to the College of Arms, this is indeed what should have occurred, all of which should be "charged with a red escallop" that represents the Spencer family.
The coat of arms is unusual in that it features a side dedicated to each of the couple, with Harry's side - on the left - taken from his personal coat of arms, which he was given when he turned 18 years old back in 2002, rather than purely symbolising the Markle family.
However, there is one precedent for only receiving one coat of arms - the Duchess of Gloucester, who was born in Denmark, only received one upon her marriage. Equally, while Thomas could have applied for an honorary coat of arms, he would have had to have proven British descent, and The Telegraph reported at the time, that royal sources said Meghan would have been unable to use one of this kind.
The Middleton coat of arms was created into what the Garter King of Arms called "an impaled coat of arms" after her marriage and a royal warrant from the Queen was made, creating a joint coat of arms with her new husband, which features two shields and two supporters and represents both arms of the family.
From the start, the design of Meghan's coat of arms represented both herself and her husband, so the use of it for their joint website makes sense, even though "traditionally wives of members of the Royal Family have two - one of their husband's supporters on the shield and one relating to themselves," per the BBC.
Coat of Arms for Meghan, The Duchess of SussexWhile Meghan's always featured her husband's supporter of the lion, rather than just herself, the couple also received a conjugal royal coat of arms, in which a unicorn is seen on the right-hand side rather than the songbird, and there are two shields instead of one.
Meghan was said to be heavily involved in the design of the coat of arms, and "worked closely with the College of Arms throughout the design process to create a Coat of Arms that was both personal and representative" - a statement at the time said.
The coat of arms is filled with symbols that relate to her background, with golden poppies visible beneath the shield - the official flower of her home state of California - alongside Wintersweet, which is said to grow in the Kensington Palace Gardens and was featured on her wedding veil.
Meghan's side of the shield features a blue background representing the Pacific Ocean, with two golden rays nodding to the excellent Californian weather and three quills, which "are a symbol of Meghan’s communication skills, and the power of words," - per The Metro.
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It also features a songbird supporting the shield on the right-hand side, which represents the Duchess and wears a coronet with fleurs-de-lys. The coat of arms was somewhat of a break with tradition, however, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, a coat of arms is normally presented to the bride's father - for instance, when Kate got married to William back in 2011, a coat for her Middleton family was presented to her father Michael and was made available for her siblings to use too. However, given Meghan's American background, this didn't occur for her father Thomas - something her half-sister Samantha said was a "huge insult" at the time, according to The Telegraph.
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