Royal snub: Meghan’s dad WON’T get a coat of arms

POOR Thomas Markle, who has to watch on television in America as a man he’s never met walks his daughter up the aisle today, has suffered a further blow.

I can reveal that the Queen has decreed he will not be granted a coat of arms.

It’s a major snub, because the fathers of previous commoners who married into the Royal Family, including those of Kate Middleton and Sophie RhysJones, were accorded the honour.

Their coats of arms were made public in the weeks leading up to their weddings and featured on the souvenir programmes for the ceremonies.

The decision will mean that Meghan Markle’s outspoken relations are not able to boast a Markle coat of arms.

Her half-sister, Samantha Grant, had already publicly discussed the expected honour. ‘Mr Markle will not have his own coat of arms,’ confirms a senior source at the College of Arms, which acts on behalf of the Crown in all matters of heraldry.

‘We were told it would be too “complicated”.

‘The Palace has instructed us to use the example of the Duchess of Gloucester and give Meghan Markle her own coat of arms instead.’

He is referring to Birgitte van Deurs, who married the Duke of Gloucester, a cousin of the Queen, in 1972. To qualify for armigerous status (the right to bear hearaldic arms), foreigners need to prove they have an ancestor who was a subject of the Crown. While this may have been a problem for Danish-born Birgitte, it posed no difficulty for Mr Markle, as his forebears include Mary Smith, a maid who was recorded in 1856 as working at Windsor Castle.

Spokesmen for the College of Arms and Kensington Palace declined to comment.