Investiture of the Prince of Wales The tradition of investing the heir apparent of the English, and subsequently the British, monarch with the title of "Prince of Wales" began in 1301, when King Edward I of England, having completed the conquest of Wales, gave the title to his heir apparent, Prince Edward (later King Edward II of England). Investiture is not necessary to be created Prince of Wales. Peers were also invested, but investitures for peers ceased in 1621, at a time when peerages were being created so frequently that the investiture ceremonies became cumbersome. Most investitures for Princes of Wales were held in front of
King of Wales only one to truly rule over all the (independent) Britons. For by this time, if not earlier, Wales was the only part of Britain remaining under Brittonic rule. According to Dr Sean Davies, “in these straitened circumstances, and with outside observers ridiculing the status of Welsh kings, ambitious native nobles adopted the novel title of prince (W. tywysog, L. princeps) in order to set them apart from their fellow ‘kings’. However, the title King of Wales was later used by at least one other Welsh ruler, Owain Gwynedd. "In his first two letters to Louis, Owain described himself as 'king