The “Coronet and Three Feathers” badge was taken at the Battle of Crecy (25th August of 1346) from the King of Bohemia by Edward of Woodstock, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the Prince of Wales, eldest son of the Plantagenet King Edward III (later to be known as the “Black Prince”) at the age of only 16.
The three ostrich plumes mounted in the Prince’s coronet surmounting the motto “Ich Dien” have remained ever since the token of the Prince of Wales.
The “Rising Sun” is the ancient badge of Edward, the Black Prince, as Prince of Wales.
The “Red Dragon” (Y Drag Goch) is the ancient Celtic badge of Wales (Cymru) from the myth and legends of the god Lludd (Lud) who became king of Wales. It was in these mystical times that Britain was oppressed by three plagues- the third of which was a “a shriek that came on every May eve, over every hearth in the Island of Britain”, and went through people’s hearts and so scared them that the men lost their hue and their strength, and the women their children, and the young men and maidens their senses, and all the animals and trees and earth and waters were left barren”. King Lludd sought the advice of his brother, Llevelys, then the King of France, who was a “man of great counsel and wisdom”. Llevelys explained that the shriek was raised by the Red Dragon of Celtic Britain who was being attacked by the White Dragon of the Saxons. Upon this counsel, Lludd measured the exact length and breadth of Britain and then dug a great hole at its centre (near Oxford). Here he placed a large vessel containing the best mead that could be made and covered it with satin so as to hide it. He later watched as the two dragons fought high in the air above the hole for a very long time. When they tired, they then fell down together on to the satin cloth, and, drawing it after them, sank into the mead below. Once they had drunk the mead and fell silently asleep, Lludd carefully folded them up in the covering and took them to Snowdon, where he buried them in a strong fortress near Beddgelert called “Dinas Emrys”. And after this the terrible shriek was not heard again until Merlin had them dug up, five hundred years later, when they recommenced fighting, and the Red Dragon drove the White Dragon out of Britain, foretelling of the day when a king of Welsh blood would sit upon the throne of Great Britain (Henry Tudor).
Owen Tudor (Owain Tewdwr), King Henry VII’s grandfather, took a dragon as his device based upon the great Red Dragon of Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd, his supposed Welsh ancestor. The Welsh dragon of modern days is red, but Owen Glendwr, who died in 1416, used as his standard a golden dragon in a white field. The Tudor dragon and the earlier Welsh beast were, however, often described as “fiery” or “of ruddy gold”, and manuscripts of the reigns of Henry VII and VIII show the Tudor dragon, both as a badge and as a supporter, with the head, back and wings of red and the under parts of gold.