multiple tartans

[creagdhubh]

I think this is the pic to which Rondo is referring:



Jock is right that mixing clan tartans is best avoided but the Prince is not doing that in this case. Both tartans are for Royal use. The Royal Stewart tartan is the monarch's tartan. The reason it is considered a universal tartan that is open to everyone is that Her Majesty is the chief of everyone in the Commonwealth.

As Jock points out, the Balmoral tartan is an estate tartan so HRH isn't mixing clan tartans.

I have even seen people with a Regimental history of wearing the government sett, wear a Black Watch waistcoat with a tartan kilt. This is a more thorny choice due to the clans that claim the government sett as a clan tartan.

Pipers mix Royal Stewart and Black Watch in some regiments, having a plaid of one tartan and a kilt of the other. Since both of these tartans belong to Her Majesty, she can wrap her troops in them as she sees fit.

All that aside, I don't like the practice of people wearing their father's tartan and mother's tartan at the same time. You can't serve two masters and be loyal to two chiefs.

And, as has been written in other threads on this matter, if your mom and dad come from rival clans, you could inadvertently end up salting old wounds. As Jock has written, many of the clans have long ago buried the hatchet in a peat bog somewhere. It's best to leave it there.

Well put, Nathan. I've always been a fan of this cracking photo. I think the wearing of the tartan waistcoat in the restricted Balmoral tartan works rather well with HRH the Duke of Edinburgh's white tie attire. Especially when he balances it out with 'Argyll' style hose in the same colours as the Balmoral tartan.