Prince Charles to wed Camilla

[Timo]

The BBC Story

I'd like to hear the opinions of some people from Britian or of British heritage on what they think of this. Any and all are welcome to comment too, of course.

Do you think it is good the Prince will have a new wife (to become Dutchess)?
Do you not care?
Do you not like the royalty?
Is this a terrible idea to re-wed after the death of Princess Diana?
Don't you think it is rather sleazy to marry the woman he had an affair with during his marriage to Diana (said by Diana to be the 'cause of the devorce') and then after her death, go pursue the relationship with this woman and eventually marry her?

Apparently he had a "thing" with this Camilla before either of them married for the first time. Yet both married different people and then later had an affair. Why didn't they just marry each other to being with? Would've saved a bunch of trouble, now wouldn't it?

I also found this bit interesting from the BBC article:

She will take the title HRH Duchess of Cornwall after the civil ceremony at Windsor Castle on 8 April.
When the Prince of Wales, 56, becomes king, Camilla, 57, will be known as the Princess Consort and not Queen Camilla.

Are these two given titles meant not to affend the British public that loved Diana, or something? Is this 'standard procedure' for the mistress/secound wife of a prince to take the title "Princess Consort" when her Husband becomes king? I genuinely don't know a lot about how the English titles or nobility/royalty work, so I'd like to know. "Princess Consort" has a demeaning ring to it, in my opinion - it is like not being qualified to be called Queen.

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

I am of English ancestry (partly). This is the Prince of Great Britain? Someone needs to tell him how to behave correctly or maybe he needs to leave Windsor Castle and move in a castle more befitting his life-style, one built in the Southern American style of architecture (one that can be towed) because he is certainly acting the part of Trailer-Trash.

[etoile noir]

The charles and camilla story goes back many years.

Prince Charles met Camilla Shand in 1971. He was prohibited from marrying her (read this somewhere on the net, presumably by the Queen) because she was not a virgin. But they had an affair. Prince Charles also shared a close friendship with Andrew Parker Bowles, who eventually became Camilla's husband when Charles decided to follow a naval career.

Years later, Camilla and Charles remained close friends - how close became evident over the years, and it is said that she actually helped him choose Diana as his bride, mostly based on the assumption that Diana (whom Charles married in 1981) was likely to be accepting of anything that was thrown her way........they were proved wrong, very wrong.

The two resumed their affair - was it ever been on hold is another matter altogether - when it became evident that the charles/diana marriage was over (around 1986 according to many sites, and 1984 according to others), and of course Andrew Parker Bowles divorced Camilla after 22 years of marriage.

The fact that the British Constitution might have to be changed for Charles to go ahead with his plan, the fact that the Queen [head of state and defender of the faith!] has given her permission to such a union, after she denied marriage with a divorcee to her sister, Margaret, not so many years ago, and after her uncle was forced to abdicate to marry the woman he loved .....and was also boycotted by the rest of the Royal family for life..... well to me this all stinks of double measures.

then again, to each his own. and these are certainly not my own. so go ahead old charlie. marry her! your kids, as well as hers, have been through enough embarrassment already. another one won't make much difference.

[Timo]

I agree with both of you, yet I wouldn't have put it as colourfully as our Anglo-American friend has. Charles should act like a Prince (that goes for his two boys as well, and yes they are still boys if they still act like little boys). What would the English Kings, Queens and Nobility of the Past think of this pathetic guy... one day to become king? I hope the 'Queen Mum' holds out for decades and decades, until the British wake up and chose to stop having this circus in there country. I really am starting to think the only two reasons the British put up with this is (a) it is a traditons and (b) it keeps most the tabloids in business (economic factor). If I have to wake up and she those boys or that Chucky on the news one more time for something stupid they did or said, I'll go nuts... and I'm not even English! I wonder how English Nationalists really feel about this freaks! That was what I wanted to know, but it seems we are lacking in Englishmen here, or at least ones that will type up there opinions - which is unfortunate, in my opinion. If I were an English Nationalist, I would kick the nobility out one by one. What do they do?! Sit on their buts and collect money? Seriously, get jobs! I know they have a naval tradition and all, but do you really think they do anything like a lower-middle class chap from Birmingham has to do? No way, they sit on velvet, whereever they go and when they take a crap, there is someone there to wipe their little, royal bottoms.


Sorry to rant, but I hate people who have it so good and yet act like such morons.

[Merlin]

I support the monarchy in the abstract, but find very little to admire in the reigning dynasty. The Act of Settlement 1701 excluded all from the royal succession who were either themselves or married to Roman Catholics "as if naturally dead".

Thus on the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the crown devolved on George of Hanover, the son of Sophia Dorothea Electress of Hanover, and about fiftieth in line to the throne by right of birth. Queen Anne's legitimate younger half brother James (who had a right prior to his elder sister to reign) and his descendents were regarded as the "Kings Over the Water" by their supporters the Jacobites, and are sometimes enumerated as Kings James VIII and III de jure, Charles III de jure and King Henry XI de jure.

The last of these, also known as Henry Benedict, Cardinal of York
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bstua.html
or more usually just as Henry of York, was the last to have any realistic claim, but accepted a cardinalate in 1747 without his brother's ("Bonny Prince Charlie's") knowledge not long after his failed rising in 1745. Henry of York bequeathed his jewels to the Prince Regent, which was regarded by some as instituting him as heir in the tradition of Celtic kingship.

I understand that ignoring the Act of Settlement, the direct line of succession devolves on the Royal or Ducal line of Bavaria. There was a body called the "White Rose League" which every year would offer loyal greetings and invite Prince Ruprecht von Wittelsbach to: "ascend his rightful place on the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland". To this he would reply with gracious thanks, and the comment that, to him, these thrones did not appear vacant.

Might Prince Ruprecht's current successor be any better than the Windsors, would anyone care to give an opinion? Who is his current successor?

[Max Payne]

Camilla is a babe

[Zrinski]

I heard that Camilla's grandmother(or something) was also a lover of Charles' granfather(or something) as well. I find that hillarious.

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Zrinski

I heard that Camilla's grandmother(or something) was also a lover of Charles' granfather(or something) as well. I find that hillarious.

Not quite. Camilla's great-grandmother, Mrs Alice Keppel, was a mistress of King Edward VII (born 1841, 1901-1910) Prince Charles's great-great-grandfather.

Edward VII had quite a few such lovers: at his coronation there was a special place reserved for them in Westminster Abbey which gave them a better view than the duchesses. Courtiers referred to this as "The King's Loose Box".

When Edward lay dying, Queen Alexandra insisted that Mrs Keppel be sent for. In those days royal marriages were matters of state, and there was a very clear understanding of the difference between the Queen and the King's mistresses.

Charles has forgotten this - if he ever knew it - in relation to Camilla Parker-Bowles.