Duchess of Cornwall explained

Post:	Duchess
Body:	Cornwall
Incumbent:	Catherine
Incumbentsince:	8 September 2022
Member Of:	British royal family
Style:	Her Royal Highness
Insigniacaption:	Arms of the Duchess of Cornwall
First:	Joan of Kent
Insigniasize:	130px

The Duchess of Cornwall is a title held by the wife of the apparent heir to the British throne. The Duchess of Cornwall is usually also the Princess of Wales, and she uses that title. The current title-holder is Catherine (née Middleton), whose husband, Prince William (later Prince of Wales), became the Duke of Cornwall on 8 September 2022, upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II.^[1] Previously, Catherine's stepmother-in-law, Queen Camilla, was known by this title.

Duchesses of Cornwall

Person	Name	Birth	Marriage	Became Duchess of Cornwall	Spouse	Change in style	Death
	Joan of Kent	19 September 1328	10 October 1361		Edward of Woodstock	7 June 1376 Husband's death; became Dowager Duchess of Cornwall	7 August 1385
	Anne Neville	11 June 1456	13 December 1470		Edward of Westminster	4 May 1471 Husband's death; became Dowager Duchess of Cornwall; later became Queen Consort as the wife of Richard III	16 March 1485
	Catherine of Aragon	16 December 1485	14 November 1501		Arthur Tudor	2 April 1502 Husband's death; became Dowager Duchess of Cornwall; later became Queen Consort as the wife of Henry VIII	7 January 1536
	Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach	1 March 1683	22 August 1705	1 August 1714	George Augustus	11 June 1727 Husband acceded to throne as George II; became Queen Consort	20 November 1737
	Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg	30 November 1719	17 April 1736		Frederick Louis	31 March 1751 Husband's death; became Dowager Duchess of Cornwall	8 February 1772
	Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel	17 May 1768	8 April 1795		George Augustus Frederick	29 January 1820 Husband acceded to throne as George IV; became Queen Consort	7 August 1821
	Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia of Denmark	1 December 1844	10 March 1863		Albert Edward	22 January 1901 Husband acceded to throne as Edward VII; became Queen Consort	20 November 1925
	Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes of Teck	26 May 1867	6 July 1893	22 January 1901	George Frederick Ernest Albert	6 May 1910 Husband acceded to throne as George V; became Queen Consort	24 March 1953
	Diana Frances Spencer	1 July 1961	29 July 1981		Charles Philip Arthur George	28 August 1996 Divorced; assumed the style of Diana, Princess of Wales^[2]	31 August 1997
	Camilla Rosemary Shand	17 July 1947	9 April 2005			8 September 2022 Husband acceded to throne as Charles III; became Queen Consort	living
	Catherine Elizabeth Middleton	9 January 1982	29 April 2011	8 September 2022	William Arthur Philip Louis	Incumbent	living

Until her husband's accession to the throne, Camilla, the second wife of the then-Prince of Wales, used the title "Duchess of Cornwall" rather than "Princess of Wales", as the latter was still popularly associated with Charles's first wife, Diana, who died in 1997.^[3]

Literary references

• Arthurian legend depicts Cornwall with its own ducal family. Notably, King Arthur's mother, Igraine, would have been Duchess of Cornwall from her first marriage to Duke Gorlois; in some stories, the title is then passed on to their daughter, Morgan le Fay.
• Shakespeare's King Lear includes the character "Regan, Duchess of Cornwall", Lear's second daughter.

See also

• Duke of Cornwall
• Duchy of Cornwall

External links

• Official website
• BBC News report

Notes and References

1. Web site: House of Commons – Royal Marriage . parliament.uk . 23 March 2019.
2. Web site: The press secretary to the Queen. DIVORCE: STATUS AND ROLE OF THE PRINCESS OF WALES. PR Newswire. Buckingham Palace. July 9, 2015.
3. Web site: The Royal Title that Camilla and Princess Diana Shared. Harper's Bazaar. 13 November 2018. 2 January 2019. When she married Prince Charles, "Camilla was not popular or well liked, [though] this has changed a lot since the marriage as Camilla has taken on a lot of patronages and Charles is a lot happier," [Marlene] Koenig says. "Still, [there was] a lot of tension and anger among a certain element of the population—so it was decided that Camilla would be styled as the Duchess of Cornwall, even though, of course, she is the Princess of Wales.". 3 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190103004958/https://www.harpersbazaar.com.au/culture/princess-diana-camilla-title-17673. dead.