WALES, PRINCE OF, is the title usually borne by the eldest son or heir apparent of the King or Queen Regnant of Great Britain and Ireland. Before the reign of Edward I. the eldest son of the Prince was called the Lord Prince. The title of Princes of Wales originally dis tinguished the native princes of that coun try. Henry III., in the 39th year of his reign, gave to his son Edward (afterwards Edward I.) the principality of Wales and earldom of Chester, but rather as an office of trust and government than as a special title for the heir apparent to his crown. When Edward afterwards became king, he conquered, in 1277, Llewellyn and David, the last native Princes of Wales and united the kingdom of Wales with the crown of England. There is a tra dition that Edward, to satisfy the national feelings of the Welsh people, promised to give them a prince without blemish on his honour, a Welshman by birth, and one who could not speak a word of Eng lish. In order to fulfil his promise lite rally, he had sent the queen Eleanor, to be confined at Caernarvon Castle, and he invested with the principality her son, Edward of Caernarvon, then an infant, and caused the barons and great men to do him homage. Edward was not at that time the king's eldest son, but on the death of his brother Alphonso, he became heir apparent, and from that time the title of Prince of Wales has ever been borne by the eldest son of the king. The title is not inherited, but is conferred by special creation and investiture; and was not always given immediately on the birth of the heir apparent. Edward IL did not create his son Prince of Wales till he was ten years old, and Edward the Black Prince was not created until he was about thirteen.
The eldest son of the king or queen reg nant is by inheritance Duke of Corn wall. Edward the Black Prince was first created Duke of Cornwall on the death of John of Eltham, his uncle, who was the last Earl of Cornwall ; and by the grant under which the title was then conferred, in the 11th Edward 111., the dukedom is inherited by the eldest living son and heir apparent. If the duke succeed to the crown, the duchy vests in his eldest son and heir apparent • but if there be no eldest son the dukedom remains with the king, the heir presumptive being in no Case entitled to it The Black Prince was also created by his father Earl of Chester and Flint. By the statute 21 Richard II. c. 9, the earldom of Chester was erected into a principality, and it was enacted that it should be given only to the king's eldest son. Although that statute, with all the others in that parliament, was repealed by the 1st Henry IV. c. 3, the earldom has ever since been given together with the principality of Wales.
The titles now borne by the Prince of Wales are " Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Saxony, Duke of Corn wall and Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Baton of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Great Steward of Scotland." As to the Duchy of Cornwall, see Civil List, p. 515.
(Selden's Titles of Honour, part ii. c. 5; Connack's Account of the Princes of Wales, 8vo. 1751.)