The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that I have also included the Shield of the Coat of Arms of HM Queen Elizabeth II as a princess as I also mentioned that her Label fitted the pattern of previous Princesses Royal without having held the title herself but by dint of her being the eldest daughter. (Her Aunt was still alive beyond the time Elizabeth came to the Throne.)
Elizabeth's Label was certainly similar to two previous Princesses Royal - a Rose between two St George's Crosses. Elizabeth had a Tudor Rose whereas Victoria (eldest daughter of HM Queen Victoria) and Charlotte (eldest daughter of HM King George III) had been assigned Red Roses. (Presumably Elizabeth or her father HM King George VI no longer wanted to favour Lancashire over Yorkshire.)
In general Queen Victoria had copied the Labels of King George III's children for her own almost equally numerous royal offspring. The Duke of Cumberland's Label was skipped over for obvious reasons. (His line became Kings of Hanover after Queen Victoria had only been able to ascend the British Throne due to Salic Law in Hanover. Even after German unification and the loss of the Hanoverian Throne, the Cumberland line still claimed the Dukedom and the 'personal' Label up until the First World War.) Even Prince Leopold received a Label echoing his great uncle Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge but was restricted to single hearts instead of double ones.
The first armigerous Princess Royal in her own right was HRH The Princess Anne, the second child and eldest daughter of HM King George II and his consort Caroline of Ansbach. She married William IV , Prince of Orange. On 31 January 1719, as a grandchild of the sovereign, Anne was assigned a Label of five points, each bearing a St George's Cross. After her grandfather passed away in June 1727 and her father ascended the Throne as HM King Goerge II Anne's Label was changed to three points as a child of the sovereign on 30 August 1727. She didn't, however, marry William of Orange until 1734.
HRH The Princess (Victoria) Mary it was who was assigned the same 'original' Label with three St George's Crosses only as her ancestress, Anne. Curiously, as mentioned before, Princess Mary wasn't assigned her Label until 1931, well after her marriage to the then Viscount Lascelles in 1922 but before she was created Princess Royal. Her Aunt Louise had been the previous Princess Royal and had died in January 1931. Mary wasn't appointed Princess Royal until the following year.
Louise's Label does not fit the pattern and is not included here for two reasons:
- She was only ever assigned a five-point Label as a grandchild of a sovereign (Queen Victoria) but was never reassigned a three-pointed version after her father ascended the Throne.
- Louise was assigned St George's Crosses certainly but alternating with Thistles instead of Roses of any nature as she had married Scottish peer The Duke of Fife.
The current Princess Royal, HRH The Princess Anne, is also not included in this line-up as she was assigned a Label with a Heart and St George's Crosses in 1962.
There is the possibility if not the probability of HRH Princess Charlotte of Cambridge being appointed Princess Royal in due course when her father ascends the Throne. We will have to wait and see if she is assigned a Label resembling any of the previous incumbents or, as appears to have become the fashion, a Label purely based on the Arms of her mother which would imply acorns and/or oak leaves. We will have to be patient...