In 2017, I covered a completely fascinating long-read article in the Guardian called “What Happens When Queen Elizabeth Dies.” Details from that article are still stuck in my mind even now, like the fact that Charles will have to basically go on a grief-tour throughout the country within days of QEII’s passing. He’ll also have to meet with the Accession Council one day after his mum dies, and that’s basically when the council formally declares him King Charles. In that article, historians and royal/legal scholars said that any way you cut it, Camilla is going to be Queen Consort. They can call her whatever made-up title they want, but Camilla will be Queen. There’s actually a theory that at the Accession Council meeting, Charles will bring Camilla in and have her declared the Queen Consort at the same time as well.
Every so often, these facts and theories get brought up again and people ask “are you ready for Queen Camilla?” Clarence House still insists that whenever Charles does ascend to the throne, Camilla will merely be the Princess Consort. That’s what they’re still saying in the year of our lord Beyonce 2020.
When the Prince of Wales married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005, it was made known that when he ascended to the throne, she would not take on the title of Queen Consort, instead being known as the Princess Consort. This was to appease those who bore the couple ill will for their affair, and later, for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Indeed, Camilla has never used the title of Princess of Wales, despite being able to, and has instead styled herself as the Duchess of Cornwall after her husband’s Duchy estate. Yet this weekend, the Daily Star claimed that Charles was considering pushing for Camilla to become Queen Consort, as is traditional.
Now, Clarence House has issued a rebuttal of this statement, saying: ‘The intention is for the Duchess to be known as Princess Consort when the Prince accedes to the throne. This was announced at the time of the marriage and there has been absolutely no change at all.’
Camilla’s supporters have argued that her growing importance within the family – particularly following the exit of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – as well as her increasing popularity – she was ranked 8th most popular royal in a YouGov poll last year – have meant that the public would be happy for her to become Queen Consort.
According to Constitutional experts, Camilla will be the Queen Consort technically anyway, as the wife of the King. A spokesperson for the University College London’s constitutional unit told The Times: ‘Prince Charles will no doubt have regard to public opinion at the time of his accession, in deciding whether Camilla should become queen; and he may also want to seek the advice of the government of the day.’
I think Charles is going to have her declared Queen Consort as soon as Liz kicks the royal and petty bucket. I think Camilla will be styled as Queen Camilla too, not Princess Consort Camilla, just because that sounds stupid and it’s meaningless anyway. The bigger question is… does Camilla even want it? She’s never had ambitions like that, and she’d rather be getting drunk with her horses. Also: maybe instead of calling Kate the Future Queen we can call her the Future Princess Consort LMAO!!! You absolutely know that William is petty enough to do that to Kate too.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid and Avalon Red.
LOL okay Charles. Why even bother responding to that story? They’re just bringing more attention to this topic by doing so, and it’s definitely going to make people side eye him when he inevitably does designate her Queen Consort. It’s amazing what they choose to refute and respond to.
To continue the PR goodwill for Cammy of course! It’s not as important as standing up for his son, daughter in law and grandson!
Exactly! They clearly keep watch over what’s said in the press and yet no one from Meghan’s new family thought it important enough to release a statement to object to all the bitterness and bile that has been poured on her the last couple of years? Now they’ll be worried that with Meghan gone, Camilla will be back to being the villainess and releasing statements left and right to defend her.
Gets drunk with horses is all I need to know. She’s okay by me.
Exactly. Charles and William are only interested in their own PR, and making themselves look good in the public eye.
Yes interesting when ‘never explain never complain goes out the window’. The palaces have comms teams whose job is to monitor press coverage& CH is responding to an article in the Star which is even trashier than the Sun, so makes Richard Kay’s piece about Charles last month of not being aware of how bad discourse around Meghan so unbelievable.
Princess Consort sounds silly. Camilla should be Queen Consort
This is so stupid. Camilla could call herself ‘Little Annie Fanny” or whatever but she WILL be the Queen Consort with the ascension of Charles III no matter how she is styled and nothing can be done about it as along as Cammie is breathing.
RRs must have run out of Sussex stories.
Why? Prince Consort is the title male spouses get when they are married to a ruling queen. Henrik in Denmark was Prince Consort, so was Claus in the Netherlands. Daniel in Sweden will be Prince Consort. Philip would have been Prince Consort if HM hadn’t given him a different title. The upcoming crop of future monarchs are mostly female. If they choose to marry men? Those men will be Prince Consort.
I think it’s also to calm the waters with all the talk of disposing of the monarchy, what are they needed for, why are they being subsidized in the wake of austerity/Brexit. There are STILL a lot of (older) Brits that despise Cam for her treatment of Di, and I think that’s why this is being bandied out there now, just as Harry and Meg are getting ready to “officially” depart the family. Charles doesn’t want ANYTHING stirring the pot too soon when he takes over in the next few years (considering Queen Petty’s age, it IS coming w/in 10 yrs at the most).
Totally agree with you Beach Dreams. And think Kaiser nailed it…..Charle’s and his PR team can say whatever they want now to try to get Charle’s positive rating up with Brits, but nothing they say will change the facts: Camilla is currently the Princess of Wales and when Charles ascends the throne, she will be the Queen Consort.
I think she’ll be Queen Consort. This is a red herring.
Camilla can style herself whatever the f she wants as long as she comes over and gets $h!t faced with me at my bar and dishes ALL the dirt on Petty Betty and Wee Willy.
I will gladly buy the first two rounds!
May I join? I’d KILL to get the gossip! I’ll buy a round or three as well!
Ooh, can I come? I’ll bring the dip.
Is there a difference between Princess Consort and Queen Consort?
lol nope. It was just to appease the peasants because she is his second wife and people hated her and loved Diana. There has never been a princess consort before.
And there never will be one.
The spouse of the male monarch has always been Queen consort. There is no precedent to do otherwise. If that is the case, then it should be princess consort moving forward. In that instance it would be consistent with the male consort being prince and not king.
Yes I was wondering if it wasn’t some sort of equivalency for the fact that his father was Prince Consort and not King …
The reason for that is King is a higher rank than Queen, and Philip could not rank higher than Betty Petty. So he remained Prince.
TheOG is right, that’s the reason Phillip is not King, it outranks queen (see Prince Albert and Queen Victoria) but I think the Queen made him a prince. He was a part of the greek royal family but I think he renounced his title as prince and then the queen made him a prince again. I may be wrong though.
But, considering the UK/world has had half a century to get used to the idea of the monarch’s spouse being “prince” maybe this would be an easy transition to having it set going forward – monarch, and then prince/ss consort.
I’ve always understood this “Princess Consort Camilla” instead of queen thing to be a title change specific to Camilla only, but this is really interesting if it is a permanent structural change in monarchy titles. It would also mean that Kate will never be queen, but only princess consort, unless William decided to change it back.
It should be changed to reflect a more gender neutral stance. Precedent in Denmark and the Netherlands. Daniel will be Prince Consort when Victoria is Queen. Most of the upcoming future monarchs are female. If they choose to marry men, their spouses will be ‘Prince Consort’.
The Netherlands was considering making Maxima Princess Consort, to try to make the monarchy more gender neutral. Public protested so she ended up Queen (Consort) Maxima.
Camilla getting drunk with her horses is quite the image.
Yeah, that gave me a laugh too. I always think of Camilla as one tough old broad who could drink a fish under the table and still be funny as hell. But then I also see her as a mummy — with benefits — to Charles too.
Camilla should be Queen Consort and be called Queen Camilla by virtue of the fact she will be married to the King. The end.
Exactly. I agree with all these comments. she’s married to the king, call her Queen Camilla. If the spouses of the monarch are going to start being called prince/princess, then fine, but lets make it clear that that’s the rule going forward.
I wonder if William is pushing for her to be princess so that Kate is the “next” Queen.
I think that was covered in a recent episode of the comedy show ‘The Windsors’ – ‘Carole’ telling ‘Camilla’ that Kate would be the next queen, and that she Carole would be the Queen Mother, lol. I wonder if The Windsors got people thinking
The whole thing is just so silly. Give her whatever title typically comes with her husband ascending to the throne. It’s just so foolishly petty not to. It’s been more than 20 years at this point, and she, Charles, and Diana were all taking part in affairs. To hold any of that over HER head only is just ridiculous.
Speaking of horses, the last picture brings to mind Phillip approving of Diana with the statement “Good – she’ll breed height into the line”
Lovely family.
Lol well he was right. William and Harry are tall. And now Meghan can breed some common sense and intelligence into the line.
Ok, pick out your ‘tiara of the day’ Guest with Cats as that was great snark. 👏🏼👏🏼
Yes – take a bow @Guest with Cat!
I do actually like Camilla. She seems down to earth and jolly good fun, and I bet she throws a blinding cocktail party.
That being said, I echo what Kaiser said: why leap to acknowledge/dismiss/clarify what is such a minor issue, but stay absolutely mute on the filth flung at dear Meghan, Harry and their son? Why rush to condemn Hilary Mantel in her misquoted piece on Kate and the devaluation of female royal bodies, but crickets when Piss Morgan incites violence and hatred? Could the Royal Family possibly show its arse any MORE?
Such a weird statement to put out. You can call her what you want, but when Charles is King, everyone will refer to Camilla as Queen, so there’s that.
If the monarchy lasts that long (which I doubt) I’m OK with a Camilla Queen Consort as long as King George’s future firstborn daughter ascends the throne as Queen with her King Consort. That’ll be a first!
Camilla and Kate should be called Presumptive Future Queens, since there are events that could occur before it happens, that would prevent them from becoming queen (divorce, husband dies before coronation, etc.)
Camilla is so gross. I do not see the appeal at all in looks or personality.
Same. I tend to be pretty mild mannered but that nasty woman, the mere sight pisses me off.
I can barely read the comments I’m laughing so hard, “Getting drunk with horses.” I’ve watched a few episodes of The Windsor’s, Camilla, B&E, Fergie, humorous.
Are we sure that Prince Charles actually wants to become Charles III, given the unfortunate history of British kings named Charles? I’d think he’d more likely go with George VII.
I hope he uses Charles as the name.
“She’d rather be getting drunk with her horses.”
Her horses drink??!! As long as they’re not mean drunks, I guess. ; )
Also: “In the year of our lord Beyonce 2020.” LOLOL!!
It’s a PR move from Clarence House. The courtiers must have done some internal polling and found a chunk of the public still sees Camila as the Royal Sidepiece that got her HRH dirty. Charles may have a tough time on Ascension Day. His pass mess and Andrew’s current mess show you can’t get what you want.
I get that they are trying not to impinge on Diana’s memory, but this is silly.
It has been decades and everyone has grown up. The ship sailed long ago. She’s his wife and will be the queen consort. Why play at this?
The grey men really are ridiculous.
I hope she becomes queen just to annoy, bill, waity and ma Middleton.