King Charles and Queen Camilla

[Roslyn]

Originally Posted by Sister Morphine

Make Camilla a princess in her own right, right now. That way she'll be HRH Princess Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall. This way, if for some ridiculous reason the RF wants to go ahead with this Princess Consort nonsense, you're AT LEAST making some action relatively close to what Victoria did with Albert.

I don't think this is likely. It would amount to giving the baggage-carrying two-year wed Camilla a highly desirable prize Diana wasn't given after 15 years of marriage and Royal service and the production of the "heir and the spare". It would re-open lightly healed wounds and upset even moderate Diana fans. The fanatics would be baying for blood.

[Sister Morphine]

Originally Posted by Roslyn

I don't think this is likely. It would amount to giving the baggage-carrying two-year wed Camilla a highly desirable prize Diana wasn't given after 15 years of marriage and Royal service and the production of the "heir and the spare". It would re-open lightly healed wounds and upset even moderate Diana fans. The fanatics would be baying for blood.

I wasn't entirely serious, mind you. I was just trying to think of what could be done that might in some way, however miniscule, make giving her the title Princess Consort sound somewhat reasonable. Albert was already a prince when he was given the title Prince Consort, whereas Camillia is not a princess.

[branchg]

Originally Posted by Sister Morphine

Make Camilla a princess in her own right, right now. That way she'll be HRH Princess Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall. This way, if for some ridiculous reason the RF wants to go ahead with this Princess Consort nonsense, you're AT LEAST making some action relatively close to what Victoria did with Albert.

That would make more sense to me. If The Queen issues letters patent now, creating her a Princess of the UK in her own right, they could say this is a first step in changing the style and title of the monarchy. Parliament could then begin debate on other changes and eventually pass legislation.

But you can't do that once she is legally Queen Consort without creating some very strange precedents, so why wait?

[branchg]

Originally Posted by Sister Morphine

I too had read about Elizabeth and Philip and she never offered him Prince Consort. Winston Churchill suggested she call him that and she rejected that idea. She also rejected the idea of "Prince Royal". She wanted his title elevated, but didn't think either of those would work. So, she made him a Prince of the UK in his own right and inserted the definite article "The" before Prince Philip, which is usually only given to the children of the sovereign. So his title then became The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Hugo Vickers states in his biography of Princess Andrew of Greece that Philip didn't care about being a Prince of the UK and was content to remain HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The Queen evidently did it more out of pressure from Lord Mountbatten than Philip himself.

[Elspeth]

Well, there's a surprise. Good old Mountbatten.

[Royal Fan]

Wonder How long till POW Takes the Throne at the soonest id say 2008 at the Latest id say 2018 (these are all harmless guesses not meant to offend)

[Roslyn]

Originally Posted by Royal Fan

Wonder How long till POW Takes the Throne at the soonest id say 2008 at the Latest id say 2018 (these are all harmless guesses not meant to offend)

Ooh! That's a tricky one. I think I'll just say that it is quite possible that we are in for up to 30 or even more years of very elderly monarchs followed by a King aged in his late 50s at the commencement of his reign.

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Sister Morphine

The other reason was because Albert was a foreigner.

I guess parliament saw the career Albert's uncle Leopold had made, first the influential husband of the heiress to the throne, princess Charlotte of Wales (who died in childbed), then he took the chance to become king of the Belgians. I believe they saw Albert as equally influential on his wife as Leopold had been on his and thought it probably to be dangerous to give him the title King Consort, as he was already muddling in the British politics of that time, just as Leopold had been.

[ysbel]

We're closing this thread for a little cleanup. No worries, no one has been naughty; this conversation brought out the need to have a general discussion thread on the future of the British monarchy.

To discuss the future of the British monarchy after Elizabeth II, you can post to this thread: The Monarchy After Elizabeth II.

Thank you.
British forum moderators