Camilla will be 'Queen'
March 22, 2005 - 8:16AM
Royal bride-to-be Camilla Parker Bowles will officially become British queen after fiance Prince Charles takes the throne despite her officially designated title of Princess Consort, the government said today.
Parker Bowles is to marry Prince Charles, who will take the throne once his mother Queen Elizabeth dies, on April 8, and will initially be titled Duchess of Cornwall, becoming Princess Consort when Charles is king.
The titles, unveiled when the pair's impending marriage was announced last month, have been seen as a sop to public opinion, which polls have shown to be largely hostile to the prospect of a Queen Camilla.
Many Britons say they blame Parker Bowles's long affair with Charles for the break-up of his first marriage to the hugely popular Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997.
However, the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) confirmed today that Parker Bowles would be queen once Charles takes the throne.
"Technically, she will be queen," department spokeswoman Zoe Campbell told AFP.
The news followed a written House of Commons question to the department by Andrew Mackinlay, a lawmaker for the ruling Labour Party, who asked whether the April 8 marriage would be "morganatic".
He was using an arcane term referring to cases in which someone of royal or noble birth marries someone of lower rank and does not share any titles.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Christopher Leslie gave a simple reply: "No".
"This is absolutely unequivocal that she automatically becomes queen when he becomes king," Mackinlay said today.
The DCA stressed, however, that much of the argument was academic, given the fact Britain has no formal constitution, just a series of laws and conventions that have evolved over the centuries.
There is no single law stating that someone with Parker Bowles's future position "will be known as queen", Campbell said.
"When you say constitutional and legal norms, a lot of it is down to convention rather than legislation, which is why she can be referred to as whatever she likes without having to change the law," she said. "She can be referred to as the Duchess of Cornwall or Princess Consort without any change to the law."
There are no moves to change the law to prevent Parker Bowles being queen, Campbell added.
The news is likely to be received coolly by Britain's generally pro-Diana tabloid newspapers, some of which have campaigned hard against the idea of a Queen Camilla.
Clarence House, Prince Charles's office, had no immediate comment.
- AFP
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