The coronets of younger children of the Sovereign are the same as that of the Prince of Wales, but without the arch.
The coronets of Princes, grandchildren of the Sovereign, are the same as those of the younger children of the Sovereign, except that the two outer crosses pattée are replaced by strawberry leaves.
Charles II. settled all these matters as they now are, and also ordained that Princes, grandchildren or nephews of the Sovereign, being also Dukes, should wear on their coronets four crosses pattée alternately with four strawberry leaves.
The Black Prince was the first English Duke. The title derives from Dux, a leader, and was, and still is, a sovereign title in many instances. The Black Prince was created a Duke in 1337 by his father Edward III. On the Prince's tomb at Canterbury he wears over his helmet a coronet which shows ten or more leaves on short pyramidal points rising from the circlet. The present ducal coronet is probably a survival of this form. The Black Prince's helmet with chapeau and crest is also preserved at Canterbury. On the tomb of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (1444), at Wimborne Minster, he is shown wearing a coronet set with several trefoils or leaves rising from the circlet. The same design shows in Prince Arthur's Book (1501-2) at the College of Arms, where the banner of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, is ensigned with a coronet bearing several leaves resembling strawberry leaves.
At the coronation of Edward VII., the official description of a Duke's coronet is "of silver gilt, and on the circle eight strawberry leaves." Pictorially five of these leaves are shown.
The first English Marquis was Robert de Vere, created Marquis of Dublin by Richard II. in 1387. A Lord Marcher was a Governor or Ruler of the Marches, or Frontiers, but the dignity did not become hereditary until the fourteenth century. It was a position of much importance and responsibility. The coronet of a Marquis is nearly the same as that of a Duke, but each alternate leaf is turned into a silver ball or pearl.
