Prince Charles turns 71 and is preparing to be king: why Camilla would not be queen consort, the disgust with her children and the family intern
The heir to the throne celebrates his birthday today between love for his wife, his mother's blessing and tension with William and Harry. The decision of the Royal House that would prevent Camilla Parker from holding the title of queen consort, the betrayal of the memory of Lady Diana and the path to the coronation
The story of Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten Windsor, who turns 71 today, could be reduced to a long succession of titles of nobility: His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Prince and Grand Steward of Scotland, Duke of Cornwall and of Rothesay, Earl of Chester and of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, and Lord of the Isles.
Son of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, of the eternal Queen Elizabeth II, already 90 years old, and heir to a throne that dates back to 1377 (with older German echoes: the Middle Ages), Prince Charles will be king in two cases: if the queen abdicates in her favor, or if she dies. Even so, Carlos can decline the crown, and the king will be William, his first-born and son of Diana Spencer.
The truth is that Carlos is preparing to be king. But it seems that this time it will be a king without a queen consort. Camilla Parker Bowles - her lover for years, her wife since April 9, 2005 - will never hold the prized royal title.
According to the British newspaper Express, the Royal House has already decided that the title of the Duchess of Cornwall changes to princess consort once Prince Charles ascended to the throne. If so, Camilla will have a made-up title, unprecedented in the history of the British monarchy. Officially, there would be no queen consort in England until Kate Middleton's turn.
It must be remembered that, in order not to offend the memory of the late Princess Diana, Camilla did not receive the title of Princess of Wales after her wedding to Charles of England. After 30 years as the lover of Queen Elizabeth's eldest son, she had to settle for the Duchess of Cornwall. For the same reason, the Royal House clarified at that time that the second wife of Prince Charles would not be queen, something that until recently detailed on its website the official residence of the heir to the throne, Clarence House.
A gray prince
With little influence on the rules and mysteries of Buckingham, Carlos graduated from Trinity College, served in the Royal Navy for just five years, and spent his long leisure time on humanitarian causes from The Prince's Charities, founded by him in 1976 , ecological agriculture, the environment, the use of alternative medicines (especially the always discussed homeopathy), and the care of historic buildings.
It is not much for a possible future king who, in such a case, will choose to be Carlos III ..., except for the dark pages of some biographers who, without a filter, swear that "he is maniac, envious, addicted to luxury, extravagant, and jealous of Kate Middleton, the wife of his son William. "
As the leading case of his highly extravagant side, they cite the incredible visit to the country house of some friends, “to which he arrived accompanied by a huge moving truck, and inside, the contents of his room and Camilla's: his orthopedic bed, his bedding, a radio, Kleenex toilet paper rolls, Laphroaig and Barrogill whiskeys - this one, his own brand -, mineral water ... and even two paintings! "
Also, among his list of rigid habits, they cite his rejection of cell phones - he does not use - machine washed clothes, eggs boiled for exactly four minutes, love for a pair of shoes as he bought half a century ago !, drive your own car, a 1944 Aston Martin…, and failed amateur magician and photographer.
The tabloid-sized tabloid press spares no bullets on its critical adjectives. Perhaps the worst is "nondescript." So far, it could well be said that the album of his life has come to an end. Nothing more to say…
Lady Di and mistress Camilla
Carlos's life changes when Diana Spencer, Lady Di ... enters the scene.
Daughter of the Viscounts of Althorp and born on the first day of July 1961, she met Carlos - more for bad than for good - in the middle of adolescence (16 years), while working as a kindergarten teacher at Young England School in Knightsbridge and the prince he was having a romantic affair with Sarah, his older sister.
He, thirteen years older than Diana, barely saw her a dozen times before February 24, 1981, when he presented her to the queen as his fiancée, putting on her ring finger the famous sapphire and diamond ring that, many years later , his son William would give Kate Middleton.
But something dense, dangerous, stirred behind that "fairy tale" curtain. Camilla Parker Bowles was agitated and menacing: Carlos's only, ardent and true love despite the tantrums of his mother, the queen, who judged her "cunning and evil."
The history of that steely, unshakable relationship dates back to 1971, when Diana was 10 years old and Carlos, in his days as an Arts student, was having his first courtship. Her ?: LucÃa Santa Cruz, daughter of the Chilean ambassador in London, who after breaking ties with that promising crowned head introduces her to her friend Camilla Shand Cubbit. Year: 1971. Location: a polo field. And the lady's full thrust:
"Did you know that your great-great-grandfather, King Edward VII, was the lover of Alice Kepper, my great-grandmother?"
Flash! In fact, and beyond any avatar, they were united for life. But the pressure from the queen was unbearable: Camilla was a Catholic, and Carlos, an Anglican. Impossible union before both creeds.
The tugs lasted until 1973. Camilla marries Major Andrew Parker Bowles - they will have two children - and Carlos embarks: a long journey on the Royal Navy's flagship ... "with more tears than water has the sea", as he would have written by some romantic poets.
But they never forgot. It is historical truth, and with many witnesses, that Carlos cried on the day of his wedding with Diana, and not from emotion for the future: from pain for his past with Camilla, which seemed to disappear forever ...
According to a BBC journalist who is very close to Carlos, "he was never really in love with Diana. He told me that perhaps in time he would come to love her, but ..."
It didn't take long for the union to cool down, beyond the birth of William and Henry and the official photos of the smiling family. It would be known much later that in the last stage they only had one sexual encounter every three weeks…, and that Diana –according to the BBC shortly before her death–, “I heard a phone talk from Carlos, locked in the bathroom , with Camilla. They talked about sex, and she with words more daring than his. "
But it was not the worst. In the same interview, Diana confessed that she would do anything to prevent Carlos from being king. "He has neither strength nor vocation for the throne. The king must be our son William."
Diana's notorious affair with Major James Hewitt, her equestrian instructor, also emerged: "Carlos knew it, and he didn't care." As he also knew her affair with a bodyguard (Mannakee), to the point where he almost ran away with him. Buckingham fired him from duty, and a few months later he died in a road accident ... to the disbelief of the princess, convinced that he had been murdered.
From the wedding (1981) to the divorce (1996), the life of Carlos and Diana was more a sham than a marriage. Farce marked by an obvious "each one by his side" and by an avalanche of evils that brought Diana to the brink of death ...
Because beyond her glamor, her art to dress, her apparent independence from the Crown, her solidarity tours and the clear love of the London popular classes, she was haunted by an almost permanent bulimia (vomiting and colon washing to get rid of the food), dizziness, deep depression, suicide attempts and persecution mania: “I am here, sitting at my table, wanting someone to hug me and give me courage to stay strong and with my head held high. I am in danger. My husband plans an accident in my car, a failure of the brakes or something like that, to have a clear path to Camilla ”(Testimony before her biographer Andrew Morton).
That fear - almost a certainty - installed him in front of the millionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi, his last and undisputed partner, and that one went further: “If they kill her, it will be the work of her father-in-law, the Duke of Edinburgh, helped by British Intelligence ”.
Its end, the tragedy in Paris, the escape in a Mercedes Benz S280 repaired after an accident - the mechanics advised to turn it into scrap -, the driver of the Ritz hotel (Henri Paul), who had not passed a breathalyzer test, crashing the tunnel of the Bridge of the Soul at almost 200 per hour, and Lady Di and Dodi, her lover, torn to pieces ..., it was incomprehensible. What was the point, then, of fleeing like hallucinations from the hotel to the apartment, if the relationship was not a secret and was it recorded in unavoidable images?
Diana Spencer was only 36 years old when she died. Carlos and Camilla were married in 2005. She received the title of Duchess of Cornwall.
A king without a queen and anger at his children
The decision that there is no queen consort seems already a fact. However, the royal expert, Victoria Arbiter, told Express that Carlos is probably not so convinced with this decision, which could change when he becomes king of England. According to Arbiter, it is very likely that the prince insists that "his wife adopt her rightful title", that is, queen consort. A decision that the followers of the late Lady Di will not like at all. "When the day finally comes, I suspect that the Prince will insist that his wife take her rightful title," he noted.
Prince William, when Charles becomes king, will be the new Duke, with Kate Middleton assuming the title of Duchess of Cornwall. Debrett's nobility expert Wendy Bosberry-Scott explained: "This is a royal duchy that is traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning monarch, so it will probably be passed on to William and then George." The duke's wife is allowed to use the title, but it is not hers in her own right.
However, when the 2013 Crown Succession Act was enacted, it transformed many aspects of the royal family, including inheritance of titles. For example, four-year-old Princess Charlotte became the first royal girl to get ahead of her younger brother in the line of succession. This was because he eliminated the old rules of male preference.
It may also mean that the UK could see its first Princess of Wales in its own right, as George could choose to hand over the title to her heir, who could be a girl. However, even if George grants a first-born the title of Princess of Wales, as the law currently stands, she could not be Duchess of Cornwall.
This is because the law that transformed the succession rights of the royal family does not apply to the duchy. The duchy, since 1337, has always passed to the eldest son of the monarch. Which means that if George has no sons, there will be no Duke of Cornwall. If you had an older daughter and a younger son, the title would pass to the male heir.
Regardless of his title, George's female heiress would still inherit the income of the Duchy of Cornwall. Under the Sovereign Grants Act 2011, the Duchy of Cornwall's income will pass to the heir to the throne, regardless of whether he is male or female.
Sources close to the heir to the throne also assure that Carlos is furious about the fact that his children have made their differences public. William and Kate Middleton on the one hand, and Harry and Mehgan markle on the other, with their fights and anger they are the most coveted prey of the British tabloid press.
The anger of Charles of England arises especially because of how these comments can affect the tasks that the British royal family performs, their public tasks. Specifically, according to the Daily Mail newspaper, Carlos is upset because all this "completely weakens" and "totally destroys the work he is doing", especially abroad.
British tabloids point out that the first in line to the throne is worried about his youngest son and in turn upset that he has always been a firm supporter of Harry and Meghan Markle, but there are gestures from his daughter-in-law that he does not like.
Carlos turns 71 between the crossfire of his children, the tensions of his path to the coronation and the concern for the background to which they would want to relegate the woman he always loved. Likewise, in the Palace they sang happy birthday.
