CAMILLA. The wife of King Charles III is also crowned this Saturday, May 6, 2023. Camilla ascends to the title of queen and could be compared in her functions and appearance to Elizabeth II, or even to Charles’ first wife, Lay Diana.
If Charles III is crowned and officially begins his reign this Saturday, May 6, Camilla Parker-Bowles is also honored. The sovereign’s wife will be crowned queen and become Queen Camilla. Obtaining this title is a sign of the path traveled by the septuagenarian since the love triangle which placed her, despite herself, on the front of the stage. The one who has long worn the label of the mistress of Charles III in public opinion, took years to gradually integrate into the British royal family. And while her coronation as Queen is the ultimate coronation, Camilla knows she’ll have to continue to keep a low profile while working for the Crown to prove her place in the Firm.
This discretion, Queen Camilla bends to it this Saturday at Westminster Abbey. Despite the splendor of the ceremony – which is much more sober than the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, economic crisis obliges – the king’s wife remains in the shadow of Charles III and has decided to wear the clothes and jewelry of the previous ones queens to pay homage to them, especially Queen Elizabeth II. Still, Camilla is not immune to a comparison with Lady Diana…
Married to King Charles III, Camilla logically becomes queen on the occasion of her husband’s coronation and is therefore crowned herself. The tradition and the protocol to which the royal family is very attached provide for this change of rank for all the wives of the monarch. It is therefore not an exceptional favor granted to Camilla, but the news may surprise since the husband of Elizabeth II was never named king during the 70 years of his wife’s reign. There too, everything is explained by the protocol, because as the site of the Royal Family specifies: “The husband of a reigning queen, unlike a queen consort, is neither crowned nor anointed during the coronation ceremony. “.
Camilla, however, came close to never being crowned queen. In 2005, when she married King Charles III, Queen Elizabeth II conditioned the couple’s union on the fact that her son’s second wife never became queen and that she acceded to the title of ” princess consort” at the coronation of Charles III. This agreement was valid until February 2022, when during her Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II granted Camilla access to the title of queen consort.
Upon the death of Elizabeth II, Charles III became king and his wife Camilla received the title of queen consort, but after her coronation on May 6, 2023, Camilla will use the title “queen”. It was normal for the king’s wife to have a deadline before claiming the highest royal title, but nearly nine months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II the title is hers. If the Consort loses her honorary title, Camilla’s role does not change. She is elevated to the same rank and benefits from the same status as the king, but remains deprived of all the powers available to the sovereign.
The Crown of England today plays a mainly ceremonial role and no longer intervenes in public affairs, but retains some institutional powers: it sits in Parliament, it formalizes the appointment of the government and can also open or dissolve the government. The only case where Charles III can exercise his royal prerogative is “in the event of a serious constitutional crisis”, but this scenario never arose during the reign of Elizabeth II. Camilla, as queen consort, has no powers. On the other hand, she is one of the first representatives of the Crown of England. A role that she already performed as Duchess of Cornwall, when Charles III was only a prince, with many commitments in the associative field. She is notably the godmother of a dozen associations.
Many details of the coronation have been revealed with a few days of the ceremony and there is no longer (too much) suspense on the outfit worn by Camilla. As tradition dictates, King Charles III and his wife must wear two outfits during the ceremony: one to enter Westminster Abbey, the state robe, and another to leave the once sacred places, the robe of pageantry or succession. And to enter the abbey chose to wear the dress made especially for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. A kind of homage to the late queen more than an attempt at comparison which would have been inappropriate the king’s wife. The decision is also explained by the desire of the Crown to reduce the costs of the ceremony. Camilla’s state dress is therefore a barely modified and adjusted crimson velvet dress.
Queen Camilla, however, decided to wear an original creation to leave Westminster Abbey. Still, this dress, designed and embroidered by the Royal School of Needlework – an establishment sponsored by the Queen – and made by the oldest London tailoring house Ede and Ravenscroft, is full of symbols, including some in memory of Elizabeth II. The embroidered patterns echo the royal couple’s love for nature with insects, but also flowers including the queen’s favourite: sprigs of lily of the valley. Myrtle, Maidenhair Fern and Cornflowers are also depicted on the dress, respectively signs of hope, purity and tender love.
The two women have always been compared and Camilla has long had the wrong role as the mistress of King Charles III when he was married to Lady Diana. The extramarital relationship between the two lovers, who today present themselves as each other’s true loves, is one of the reasons for Camilla’s unpopularity with the British. While the Queen has managed to fit in and be accepted as Crown Subjects in recent years, she remains one of the most underappreciated royals. Only 38% of people say they have a positive opinion of her, according to the YouGov poll for the first quarter of 2023.
By comparison, Lady Diana retains a strong place in the hearts of much of British public opinion even 25 years after her death. A parallel between the two women would therefore not be advantageous for Camilla and yet, there is a risk of one at the coronation because of Camilla’s outfit under her official dresses. According to The Guardian, the queen called on designer Bruce Oldfield to dress her this Saturday, May 6. However, the man was one of Lady Diana’s favorite designers as Gala recalls. However, this is not the first time that the second wife of the king has worked with the stylist, she has already called on his talents to dress him in various ceremonies. “Camilla has had a very close friendship with Bruce for many years, so it’s a natural and obvious fit in many ways,” a source familiar with the matter told British tabloid The Sun. Neither the couturier nor the Crown spoke on the subject, but Bruce Oldfield reportedly confided in 2014 that he “gave Diana her glamor and Camilla her confidence”.
Queen Camilla is going to be crowned and it’s not just any crown that will be given to her. While many believed that the wife of King Charles III would choose to adopt Queen Elizabeth’s crown from 1937, it was ultimately the headgear worn by Queen Mary in 1911 that won her favor. The object which appears among the Crown Jewels was taken out of its box in February to undergo some modifications, because if it has already been used the crown can be personalized. Camilla will thus wear the jewel with only four arches out of the eight initially present according to Histoires royales.
Camilla’s crown, however, should be less prestigious than in 1911, when Queen Mary wore jewellery, and for good reason a diamond should be missing: the Koh-i-Noor diamond. This precious stone has been the subject of a dispute between the Crown, India and Pakistan for centuries: the two Asian countries accuse the former British Empire of having stolen the diamond and demand that it be returned to them. rendered. To avoid reigniting this centuries-old conflict, Camilla’s crown could therefore be adorned with a copy of the stone rather than the original believed to be Au Feminine.
Camilla Shand was born on July 17, 1947 in London, into the English bourgeoisie. Her father is Major Bruce Shand, a British army officer turned wine merchant, while her mother, Rosalind Cubitt, is from the family of Ashcombe barons. Camilla follows a brilliant career in the best private establishments in London and Switzerland, and evolves in the same circles as Prince Charles. The two lovers met for the first time during a polo match in Windsor in 1971. They then began a romance before the prince joined the Royal Navy the same year.
Camilla then fell in love and thus married Major Andrew Parker-Bowles, with whom she had two children. She was also the one who pushed Prince Charles to marry Lady Diana in 1981. Even though Camilla and Charles were both married, they resumed their affair, which burst into the open and led to the divorce of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1996. Shortly after, the couple formalized their relationship without obtaining the blessing of Queen Elizabeth II. Camilla then begins a long process of seduction to find her place within the royal family, with the children of Charles and Lady Di, William and Harry, but also with the sovereign.
After years of effort, the Duchess of Cornwall seems to have succeeded. She is now considered an asset to the English crown. Endowed with a natural empathy, she is involved in many charitable actions. Thus, she is the godmother of Emmaus United Kingdom and of the Barnardo’s association, involved in helping children in great difficulty. She is also president of the National Society for the Fight against Osteoporosis, a disease that affects the human skeleton. Camilla Parker-Bowles is particularly involved in the fight against this disease since she took away her grandmother and her mother…
Camilla has therefore fully integrated, over time, into the royal family. That’s why, during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee on February 6, 2022, the Sovereign made it known that she was in favor of her son’s companion, Prince Charles, becoming Queen Consort at his death. It is now done since her husband has become king of England.
If the most illustrious love triangle of the British crown remains undoubtedly that of Camilla, Charles and Diana, the new queen consort has also been at the heart of another love conflict. Thus, when Camilla meets Andrew Parker-Bowles, a British army officer, he has a relationship with Princess Anne, daughter of Elizabeth II. But the marriage between the two lovers at the time is impossible, the officer being Catholic. Andrew Parker-Bowles then decides to propose to Camilla Shand. They said “yes” to each other in 1973. From this union, two children were born: Laura Lopes and Tony Parker-Bowles. The marriage will last 22 years. In 1995, the two spouses decided to divorce.
Camilla Shand and Prince Charles met for the first time during a polo game organized in Windsor in 1971. Like Queen Elizabeth II, she was fond of horse riding and quickly fell in love with the sovereign’s son. The two lovers then have a brief affair before Charles enlists in the Royal Navy. Their paths diverge. Camilla marries Andrew Parker-Bowles. Staying in contact with the Prince of Wales, she encouraged him in 1981 to marry Diana.
While they are each married, Camilla and Charles resume their affair. It will be necessary to wait for their respective divorces in 1995 (Andrew and Camilla Parker-Bowles) and 1996 (Charles and Diana) to see the two lovers appear in public. However, Camilla’s popularity rating was tarnished, especially with the death of Diana in 1997. The civil marriage of Charles and Camilla in 2005 did not change anything. Even today, the British are divided about the new Queen consort. She remains one of the least beloved members of the royal family. A YouGov poll in 2022 credited her with 40% favorable opinions. Furthermore, less than half of the English wanted her to become queen consort. But according to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, “people realize that Camilla is ideal for Charles and that they work wonderfully well as a team,” he told AFP.
When you know the history of the rivalry between Diana and Camilla, hard to imagine that it was the new queen consort of the Kingdom of England who insisted that Charles marry “Lady Di”. After the marriage of the Prince of Wales, in 1981, the princely couple regularly saw Camilla and Andrew Parker-Bowles, and went on weekends to the countryside, all four of them. It’s hard to say if it was during this period that Camilla and Charles became lovers again. According to the prince, it would be in 1986, once he got wind of his wife’s adulterous story. Diana will deny and claim otherwise.
In his book titled A Well-Kept Secret, Princess Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, recounts a scene that pretty much sums up the love rivalry that existed at the time between the three protagonists. In 1989, Diana goes to the birthday party of Annabel Elliott, Camilla’s sister. As the dinner ends, she finds that Charles, who had the unpleasant surprise of seeing his wife show up at the birthday party, has isolated himself with Camilla and another guest in a living room. The intrepid princess decides to confront them: “Don’t take me for an idiot, I know what’s going on”, she would have told them. Camilla reportedly replied, “But you have it all, you can have all the men you want!” An answer not to the taste of the princess, the latter launching: “Well, it is my husband that I want.”
Isabelle Rivère, a French royalty specialist, estimated in Elle that there is a real point that differentiates the two women: “Diana and Camilla are alike in many ways, but there is one that will distinguish them forever. Diana, as a child, suffered from a lack of love, of recognition, and she saw her mother leave home when she was only seven years old. never recovers. Camilla, adored by her family, has always had an unshakable confidence in herself.”
