Royal Fans Know About Kate Middleton and Princess Diana, What Other Members of the Royal Family Have Been the Princess of Wales?
Kate Middleton recently became the first woman since Princess Diana to officially use the Princess of Wales title. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III, Prince William became the heir to the throne. Which resulted in the new sovereign giving him and his wife the titles of Prince and Princess of Wales. But royal fans know all about Kate and Diana — what other members of the royal family have been Princess of Wales?
Kate Middleton is the new Princess of Wales
Princess of Wales, or Tywysoges Cymru in Welsh, is a courtesy title that has been used by members of the British royal family for centuries. Before the spouse of the heir to the British throne held the title, though, there were native Welsh princesses who used it. As well as the wife of a Welsh Prince.
Eleanor de Montfort was the wife of the last Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, before the conquest of Edward I of England. But for our purposes, we are only going to list the ladies who received the title because they were married to the British heir to the throne.
The first member of the British royal family to use the Princess of Wales title was Joan, Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester, and Countess of Kent, who lived from 1326 to 1385. She married Edward of Woodstock, known as the Black Prince and the eldest son of King Edward III.
However, her husband died before he could inherit the throne. So, Joan and Edward’s son Richard of Bordeaux (later King Richard II) became king, and Joan became the Dowager Princess of Wales.
Anne Neville and Catherine of Aragon both held the title, then there was a two century gap
Anne Neville was the Princess of Wales for one year (1470-1471) when her husband, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, became the heir apparent of King Henry VI. She later became queen, but not because she was married to the heir.
In 1501, Catherine of Aragon — the most famous wife of Henry VIII — briefly became the Princess of Wales when she married Henry’s older brother Arthur. When Arthur died just one year into their marriage, Catherine was betrothed to his brother.
It wasn’t until 1714 that the next woman would hold the title. Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach married Prince George Augustus of Hanover when he was third in line to the throne. After the death of Queen Anne, her father-in-law became King George I and her husband was invested as Prince of Wales. Which, of course, made her Princess of Wales.
Caroline was actually the first woman to receive the title at the same time as her husband, instead of marrying a man who already held the Prince of Wales title. When her husband became king, she became queen consort.
Over the next three centuries, there was a line of well-known women to hold the Princess of Wales title. In 1736, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg received the title when she married Frederick, Prince of Wales. She kept it until her husband’s death in 1751.
Kate Middleton is using the Princess of Wales title, Camilla Parker Bowles did not out of respect
Caroline of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel married the oldest son of King George III and Queen Charlotte, Augustus Frederick, and became the Princess of Wales on her wedding day. Alexandra of Denmark held the title for longer than anyone, from 1863 to her husband’s accession as King Edward VII in 1901.
Mary of Teck — Alexandra’s daughter-in-law and the grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II — was the next person to hold the Princess of Wales title when she married George V when he was the heir. She held the title from 1901 to 1910 when her husband became king.
Seven decades later, Diana Spencer received the title when she married then-Prince Charles in 1981. She kept the title until her death in 1997. When Camilla Parker Bowles married Charles, she used the title of Duchess of Cornwall out of respect for Diana. Now, the title is in use once again thanks to Kate Middleton.
