Prince of Wales's feathers Prince of Wales's feathers The Prince of Wales's feathers is the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales. It consists of three white ostrich feathers emerging from a gold coronet. A ribbon below the coronet bears the motto (, "I serve"). As well as being used in royal heraldry, the badge is sometimes used to symbolise Wales, particularly in Welsh rugby union and Welsh regiments of the British Army. The badge has no connection with the native Princes of Wales. Its use is generally traced back to Edward, the Black Prince (1330–1376), eldest son and heir apparent of Edward III
Edward the Black Prince "Edward the Prince, cognomen: The Black"); in the other, in English to "the Blake Prince". In both instances, Leland is summarising earlier works – respectively, the 14th-century "Eulogium Historiarum" and the late 15th-century chronicle attributed to John Warkworth – but in neither case does the name appear in his source texts. In print, Roger Ascham in his "Toxophilus" (1545) refers to "ye noble black prince Edward beside Poeters"; while Richard Grafton, in his "Chronicle at Large" (1569), uses the name on three occasions, saying that "some writers name him the black prince", and elsewhere that he was "commonly called the