New coat of arms unveiled for Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex has officially been given her own royal coat of arms.
The special honour was revealed on Friday (25May18), almost a week after the former Suits actress, formerly known as Meghan Markle, wed Britain’s Prince Harry at Windsor Castle, England.
The coat of arms is traditionally gifted to the father of the bride before a royal wedding, but, following the drama surrounding Thomas Markle’s decision to pull out of plans to walk his daughter down the aisle just days before the ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II has decided to present the design to the new Duchess herself.
Meghan worked closely with designers at the College of Arms in London to create her new honour, which features a golden lion wearing a crown, representing Harry’s royal lineage, and a white songbird with its wings outstretched in flight.
In between the two figures, known as Supporters, sits a shield with a blue background, a symbol of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, where Meghan was born, with two gold lines across the design representing the sun rays of her home state. It also features three quills, a nod to communication and the power of words.
The shield sits on a patch of grass, where golden poppies, California’s state flower, grow beside wintersweet, a nod to the gardens at Kensington Palace.
In a statement issued by royal officials, Thomas Woodcock, Garter King of Arms and Senior Herald in England, revealed Meghan was deeply involved in the coat of arms’ creation.
“The Duchess of Sussex took a great interest in the design,” he said. “Good heraldic design is nearly always simple and the Arms of The Duchess of Sussex stand well beside the historic beauty of the quartered British Royal Arms.”
Notably, the new coat of arms also does not carry the Markle family name, another break from royal tradition, unlike the coat of arms given to Prince William’s wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, which had both her maiden name Middleton, and her mother’s family name, Goldsmith. A reason for the Markle omission has not been given.
Thomas Markle first cancelled his trip to the U.K. on 14 May (18) after it was revealed he had staged a series of paparazzi photos and sold them to the press, before changing his mind and declaring he still wanted to attend the royal wedding.
However, he had to scrap the idea altogether after learning he needed major surgery following a heart attack in early May (18). Instead, Meghan asked her new father-in-law, Prince Charles, to escort her to the altar.