camilla parker bowles

Camilla Parker Bowles (born July 17, 1947) was the girlfriend, then mistress, later open companion, and is now the fiance of Charles, Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the thrones of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms. She and the Prince of Wales will wed on April 9, 2005 at which point she will be known as Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, and will not be called Princess of Wales, the title used by the late Diana, Princess of Wales http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050321/D88VKDU00.html. The royal marriage was moved from April 8th due its conflict with the funeral of Pope John Paul II, which the Prince of Wales will attend. Earlier in the week, however, Clarence House had announced that the funeral, which was not yet scheduled, would pose no problem for the wedding being celebrated as planned, even if both events occurred on the same day. An additional logistical problem posed by the date of the papal funeral that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury was to be among the mourners in Rome. He was to preside over the blessing service for the newlyweds after their civil ceremony but will do so on April 9th.

Early life and family history

She was born Camilla Rosemary Shand in London. Her parents were the Hon. Rosalind Cubitt, the elder daughter of the 3rd Baron Ashcombe (whose forebear was the builder Thomas Cubitt, who made a fortune constructing much of London's West End for the Grosvenor family), and her husband, Major Bruce Shand, a British Army officer turned wine merchant and half-brother of Elspeth Howe. According to genealogist William Addams Reitweisner, her ancestry is French, English, Dutch, Scots, and American. She is descended from several families -- Treadway, Barnes, Jones, Goodnow, Allen, Brazier, and others -- who were living in Massachusetts and Connecticut in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. She also has a streak of French Canadian in her family tree. Mrs Parker Bowles is related to three other favourites of the British royal family. She is a great-granddaughter of famed royal mistress Alice Keppel (the Hon. Mrs George Keppel, ne Edmonstone, a daughter of Admiral Sir William Edmonstone), who was the last love of the Prince of Wales's great-great-grandfather, Edward VII and was born two months before Mrs Keppel's death. Through George Keppel, she is related to Judith Keppel, the first winner of the top prize on the UK version of the television game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? George Keppel's brother is the great-great-grandfather of Judith Keppel, making them third cousins once removed. Mrs Parker Bowles is also a descendant via her grandmother Sonia Keppel of Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle, a favourite of William III, and of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, the illegitimate son of King Charles II by his mistress Louise-Rene de Penancot de Krouaille, duchess of Portsmouth. (Diana, Princess of Wales also was directly descended from the 1st Duke of Richmond.) Mrs Parker Bowles is also a grandniece of Violet Trefusis, a socialite who caused an international scandal in the 1920s by eloping with fellow writer Vita Sackville-West; both ladies were married at the time. During her youth she lived in the small village of Plumpton (Sussex). Mrs Parker Bowles is said to have lost heavily along with other Lloyd's Names, and thus to have depleted her private fortune, derived mostly from her Cubitt ancestors. She is a dedicated horse-rider and enjoys hunting, and when she was still Camilla Shand, she worked for a year at the London decorators Colefax & Fowler.

Hidden relationship with Prince Charles

The relationship between Prince Charles and Mrs Parker Bowles has been the subject of many tabloid articles over the years. The relationship initially began in 1972, before either of them was married, but ended a year later, reportedly after the prince delayed proposing marriage. Camilla Shand was married in 1973 to Andrew Parker Bowles, who was an Army officer, friend of the Prince Charles and godson of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The couple had two children: Tom (born 1974, a food columnist for Tatler who is a godson of the Prince of Wales) and Laura (born 1979). The friendship between the Prince of Wales and the Parker Bowleses continued. The Parker Bowles marriage became shaky, and Andrew Parker Bowles took a long-term mistress who later became his second wife. Mrs Parker Bowles and the Prince of Wales did not now have the option of a public romance, and Charles looked elsewhere for a wife. The late Diana, Princess of Wales publicly blamed the relationship between the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles for the break-up of the Wales' marriage; privately, the princess referred to Mrs Parker Bowles, with whom she had originally been on affable terms, as "the Rottweiler". Diana reported that Mrs Parker Bowles had known before she did that the Prince of Wales was going to propose to her. The Prince and Mrs Parker Bowles bought one another presents and used the pet nicknames of "Fred" and "Gladys" to one another. The Prince's supporters maintained that Diana's "paranoid fixation" over his friendship with Mrs Parker Bowles broke up the Wales' marriage. In the early 1990s, after the rift between the Prince and Princess of Wales became public knowledge, the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles began a relationship. This became public knowledge with the leaking of the "Camillagate" tape: recordings of a private telephone conversation between the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles. It has been claimed by royal "insiders", though denied by both the couple and their friends, that their affair had been conducted throughout the prince's engagement. The affair publicly resumed after he made the decision to separate from his wife. After his public admission, in a television interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, that he had committed adultery, Mr and Mrs Parker Bowles announced their own divorce in 1995. They had been living apart for some time, and Andrew Parker Bowles soon remarried. Camilla Parker Bowles now lives openly with the Prince of Wales at Highgrove House and appears with him at social events. She also lives at Clarence House, the former residence of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which is now the Prince of Wales's official London residence. He spent his early childhood in the house, which was the first residence of his newlywed parents, the present Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the Duke of Edinburgh. As British newspapers reported in early 2005, in articles about the finances of the Prince of Wales, His Royal Highness pays for Mrs Parker Bowles's jewels and designer wardrobe (among the designers are Giorgio Armani and Oscar de la Renta) and the decoration of her two-room Clarence House quarters by designer Robert Kime.

Wedding plans

On February 10, 2005, it was announced that Mrs Parker Bowles and the Prince of Wales are to marry on April 8, 2005, at Windsor Castle with a civil service followed by religious prayer. The Archbishop of Canterbury will bless the service in St. George's Chapel (inside Windsor Castle) after the wedding is registered. A civil ceremony was planned because of controversy within the Church of England regarding the remarriage of divorces. On February 14 the BBC uncovered government documents dating from 1956 and 1964 which suggest that it may not be lawful for members of the royal family to marry in a civil ceremony in England and Wales, though it would be lawful in Scotland. Following various legal challenges, the government determined that a civil marriage would in fact be valid, the Human Rights Act of 1998 apparently superceding any previously enacted legislation barring members of the royal family from civil marriages. There were calls for a short piece of legislation to remove all doubt, but no legislation was in fact introduced. On February 17, Clarence House annouced a change of venue from Windsor Castle to the Guildhall, Windsor, immediately outside the walls of the castle. This substitution was came about when it was discovered that the legal requirements for licensing the royal castle for civil weddings would require opening it up to other prospective couples for at least three years. On February 22, Buckingham Palace annouced that the Queen will not attend the actual wedding, but would attend the church blessing and host the reception afterward. The reason stated by the palace was the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles wanted to keep the occasion low key. On April 4 it was announced that the wedding would be postponed 24 hours until April 9, so that the Prince of Wales can attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II as the representative of the Queen. After the engagement announcement, the couple were congratulated by Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams; the Prime Minister, Tony Blair; the Leader of the Opposition, Michael Howard; the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy; the Leader of the House of Commons, Peter Hain; and the various heads of Government of Commonwealth countries. Mrs Parker Bowles's engagement ring, breathlessly reported to be an "enormous" diamond by Sarah Lyall of The New York Times on 11 February, 2005, is a Windsor family heirloom that belonged to the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. With a 1920s platinum setting, it is composed of a square-cut central diamond flanked by six diamond baguettes. Photographs of Mrs Parker Bowles showing the ring to the media reveal that the main stone is not especially large.

Title

It was also announced that Mrs Parker Bowles would thereafter be known as Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, rather than HRH The Princess of Wales, the title which is more appropriate to her position as wife of the heir to the throne but which is still too firmly associated with Diana, Princess of Wales for many of the late princess's admirers. The Cornwall title will be used outside Scotland; within Scotland, the Prince's second wife will be known as "HRH The Duchess of Rothesay". It was further announced that after the accession of the Prince of Wales to the throne, Camilla will be styled Her Royal Highness The Princess Consort, not Her Majesty Queen Camilla. The title echoes that which was utilised by Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha when he married Queen Victoria and was made His Royal Highness The Prince Consort. It is believed this solution has been decided upon because many of the British public would be opposed to a Queen Camilla, again perhaps because this would remind them that Camilla has assumed the role which was originally destined for Diana. (The couple have been reported as saying that the title of Princess Consort is appropriate and one they both prefer.) Commentators and constitutional experts, however, point out that wives take the female form of their husbands' styles and titles, so Parker Bowles would, upon the accession of Charles, automatically become Queen Consort. At this point it is unclear whether the intention is for Charles's wife to simply avoid using the title "queen" even though theoretically entitled to it or to formalize the situation in legislation. (For an example of the former approach, see Lady Louise Windsor.) Some British experts claim that the only means of denying her the regal title is an Act of Parliament, both in the United Kingdom and the 15 other Commonwealth realms. At least one constitutional lawyer has taken issue with this position, pointing out that in New Zealand at least, the sovereign is the only member of the royal family specifically referred to in law.http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3225728a11,00.html On 21 March 2005, the British Government -- represented by the Constitutional Affairs Minister Christopher Leslie and the Department for Constitutional Affairs -- announced that the marriage will not be morganatic, so there is no impediment of any kind to Camilla becoming Queen Camilla upon her husband's expected ascension to the throne.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4370769.stm Prime Minister Tony Blair's official response to this news was gingerly worded. "The position at the moment is limited to what the title would be on her marriage," the prime minister's spokesman said. "In terms of any future events, let's wait until future events arise." Throughout British history, the wife of the King has always been called Queen; however, this is not enforced by any Act of Parliament. The husbands of British queens have not automatically been called King or by any other particular title, though Philip II of Spain was named King consort upon his marriage to Mary I and William III was named King regnant alongside his co-ruling wife Mary II. However, it's been argued by a number of constitutional experts that the only way the King's consort could be denied the title of Queen is for an Act denying her the title to be passed in each of the Commonwealth realms.

List of titles

Mrs Parker Bowles's current name, previous names, and intended future titles are as follows in chronological order:

Miss Camilla Shand (untill 1973)
Mrs Andrew Parker Bowles (1973-1995)
Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles (1995-present)
Different depending on area:

(outside Scotland) Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall
(inside Scotland) Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Rothesay

Her Royal Highness The Princess Consort

Because of her age, Mrs Parker Bowles and the Prince are unlikely to have children; however, there is no reason to believe that the choice of title or her status as a divorce would disadvantage any children in the royal succession under existing rules. Whether this is likely to be a practical concern is debatable; any children by her would have to outlive both of the Prince's current sons to succeed.