Well, finally.
Ending years of public speculation and national debate, Prince Charles, heir to England’s throne, announced Thursday that he will marry his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles. According to British law, Charles, 56, needed his mum’s permission, and his mum, Queen Elizabeth II, has given it.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, offered the couple their “warmest good wishes for their future together,” according to a statement issued by Buckingham Palace.
Charles and Parker Bowles’ first public appearance as a betrothed couple came at a Windsor Castle dinner party Thursday evening. Parker Bowles was wearing an impressive diamond engagement ring, said to be a royal heirloom, and told her friends that the prince went down on bended knee to propose.
The announcement was made earlier in the day by Clarence House, the prince’s official residence, and immediately rekindled old arguments about Parker Bowles’ suitability.
The wedding will be April 8. The prince and Parker Bowles will tie the knot in a private civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, to be followed by a prayer service in the castle’s chapel.
Legally, the marriage will make Parker Bowles, 57, the Princess of Wales, but to avoid unfavorable comparisons with the previous Princess of Wales, Charles’ first wife, the late and much beloved Princess Diana, Parker Bowles will assume the title Duchess of Cornwall.
And in a more important bow to public opinion, Clarence House made clear that if Charles becomes king, his wife would not become Queen Camilla. Instead, she would use the title Princess Consort.
Thursday’s announcement was the culmination of a long and carefully calibrated campaign to rehabilitate Parker Bowles’ public image.
Parker Bowles, frequently portrayed in the tabloids as the “other woman” who wrecked the fairy-tale marriage of Charles and Diana, suffered a low point after the royal split when supermarket shoppers pelted her with dinner rolls.
Recent opinion polls suggest that the public has grudgingly come around. A poll in the Sun tabloid last month indicated that 40 percent thought Charles should marry her, while 36 percent opposed the idea and 24 percent were indifferent. Public opinion remains adamantly opposed to the idea of Queen Camilla.
Religious questions
The marriage also raises sensitive religious questions. As king, Charles would be the head of the Church of England, and many in the church still disapprove of remarriage by divorced people, especially in cases where their relationship resulted in the collapse of an existing marriage. Parker Bowles, a Roman Catholic, also is divorced.
But as part of Thursday’s meticulously orchestrated announcement, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, said he was “pleased that Prince Charles and Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles have decided to take this important step.”
Williams, who will preside over the Windsor Castle prayer service, said the marriage is “consistent with Church of England guidelines concerning remarriage, which the Prince of Wales fully accepts as a committed Anglican and as prospective supreme governor of the Church of England.”
Marrying Parker Bowles avoids the awkwardness of Charles someday becoming king and having to explain his live-in girlfriend. In this respect, he is more fortunate than one of his ancestors, King Edward VIII, who had to give up the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American.
Britain’s political establishment quickly gave its blessing to the match. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was “delighted” by the news, while opposition leaders Michael Howard of the Conservatives and Charles Kennedy of the Liberal Democrats offered their congratulations.
Public weighs in
But the critical test for the man who would be king will be the public’s verdict.
“What Would Diana Say?” asked the headline in Friday’s edition of the tabloid Daily Express.
“I don’t think Camilla’s the right type for him,” Jean Farrell, 65, a pensioner from Shepherd’s Bush told the BBC. “She’s not as nice as Diana, and she’ll never be able to take her place.”
One factor that may work in Charles’ favor is that unlike many powerful men of a certain age, he cannot be accused of dumping his first wife for a younger, prettier “trophy.” Parker Bowles is a year older than Charles and a bit on the frumpy side. As a couple they appear to genuinely enjoy each other’s company, and evidently have for a long time.
Their romance goes back three decades and has a pedigree redolent with royal history and scandal. Parker Bowles’ great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was the longtime mistress of King Edward VII, one of Charles’ ancestors.
Parker Bowles, who shares Charles’ fondness for horses and fox hunting, met the prince at a Windsor polo match in 1971. Amorous sparks were struck, and about a year later Camilla Shand, as the 25-year-old debutante was then known, coquettishly approached the young prince and reportedly said: “My great-grandmother was your great-great-grandfather’s mistress, so how about it?”
The flame sputtered when Charles joined the navy and Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, a cavalry officer and minor royal functionary.
Always a presence
But the two remained friends, and it was Parker Bowles who urged Charles to marry 19-year-old Diana Spencer in 1981. The marriage went on the rocks, and the hovering presence of Parker Bowles was a major cause.
Diana referred to her husband’s old flame as “the Rottweiler” and suspected his unfaithfulness. The royal couple separated in 1992. A few months later, the infamous “Camillagate” tapes surfaced–recordings of phone conversations between Charles and Parker Bowles, which, in addition to Charles’ declarations of love, contained some spectacularly embarrassing intimacies.
Shortly after that, in a television interview, Charles admitted to adultery during his marriage but did not name Parker Bowles.
Later, Diana told a television interviewer that “there were three in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
In 1995, Parker Bowles and her husband divorced, and she became Charles’ semi-official companion. The next year, Charles and Diana’s divorce was made final. While Diana delighted the paparazzi by being seen with a succession of men, Charles tried to gradually introduce his relationship with Parker Bowles to an unsympathetic public. That effort was dealt a devastating setback in 1997 when Diana and her beau, Egyptian playboy Dodi Fayed, were killed in a Paris car crash.
The popular press canonized Diana, and Camilla was forced to retreat into the shadows.
She re-emerged in 1999 when she was introduced to Prince William and Prince Harry, Charles’ sons by Diana. A year later, Charles brought her home to meet the parents. She then began to appear regularly at Charles’ side during charity functions.
After recent renovations at Clarence House, she moved in, and most royal watchers saw Thursday’s announcement as only a matter of time.
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Charlie Madigan doesn’t care, wonders who does. chicagotribune.com/gleaner
