The journey that has taken the former Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles from mistress to Queen-in-waiting has been long, bumpy and exhausting.
On the way, she has been vilified to a degree that would have sent many women into the bleakest spiral of depression.
At times, her very presence in Prince Charles’s life was said to have imperilled the existence of the throne. Now she is endorsed as its saviour for her calming influence that will allow her husband to become the King he wants to be.
Never has that old saying that time changes everything been more appropriate.
Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall, leave St George’s Chapel, Windsor, following the blessing of their wedding in 2005
‘Indeed, so smooth has been Camilla’s transition from ‘wicked woman’ to the gracious Duchess of Cornwall that, for many, the role she will occupy as the wife of the future King Charles had ceased to have much meaning’, writes RICHARD KAY. Pictured: Prince Charles and Camilla in 1975
Princess Diana (left) and Camilla (right) at Ludlow Races where Prince Charles was competing in 1980
Some 23 years ago, just 12 months after the crash in Paris in which Princess Diana was killed, Charles went to see the Queen.
He was looking for his mother’s approval and support for his relationship with Mrs Parker Bowles, which ever since his ex-wife’s death had continued to be conducted in the shadows.
It was not a happy meeting. The Queen told her son she did not want to talk about ‘that wicked woman’. Those were the days, of course, when memories of Diana, accompanied by considerable public anger at the way she was perceived to have been treated, were still fresh in the nation’s mind.
Today, the woman memorably described by the princess as the ‘third person’ in her marriage, has not merely been accepted into the Royal Family, she has turned into its most central female figure after the Queen herself, a trusted and reassuring lynchpin between the young and the old.
Her support for the Queen as she coped with the death of Prince Philip and the isolation of the Covid pandemic has been vital. But then so too has been the way she has helped Prince William’s wife Kate, who has struggled at times with the increased scrutiny that has come with the self-imposed exile of Prince Harry and his family.
At the same time, the nervousness that used to characterise her own public engagements has long since vanished, replaced by an easy warmth that has shifted many of the prejudices that had been held against her.
Indeed, so smooth has been Camilla’s transition from ‘wicked woman’ to the gracious Duchess of Cornwall that, for many, the role she will occupy as the wife of the future King Charles had ceased to have much meaning.
Some 23 years ago, just 12 months after the crash in Paris in which Princess Diana was killed, Charles went to see the Queen
The Queen assured the Duchess of Cornwall (pictured) will be made Queen Consort when Charles becomes King in an historic Platinum Jubilee statement, ending years of uncertainty over the issue
For several years polls have suggested that most British people would not object if, rather than the title Princess Consort aides said she would use when the Prince of Wales becomes monarch, she is crowned Queen Consort.
But even so, Palace officials remained nervous about changing a policy that had been formulated at the time of the couple’s engagement in 2005. In part, this was to ensure she did not take the title that would automatically have been Diana’s had she lived and the couple remained married.
Charles, however, was confident that the British tradition of forgiveness and fair play would ultimately allow his wife to be anointed Queen at his side.
Increasingly so too were courtiers. Camilla’s New Year elevation to the Order of the Garter was not just a reward for the loyalty and discretion she has shown since her marriage, but also a clear sign that attitudes were softening.
The Queen’s weekend intervention declaring that it is her ‘sincere wish’ for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged when Charles succeeds to the throne is a game-changer. By making it such a personal announcement almost certainly means there will be far fewer critical voices.
It also demonstrates the Queen’s long-held view that the role of monarch is a two-person job.
Throughout her reign she lavished praise on Philip for his unquestioning support. Knowing both the demands of the position and the character of her son, she has long felt Charles would be better served with a consort who can share the responsibilities just as Philip did.
Indeed, she feared that Charles might even fail as King unless Camilla was allowed to be his ‘strength and stay’ just as she famously proclaimed Prince Philip had been to her.
The Queen has been photographed working from her red boxes in an image released on the day she passes the historic milestone of 70 years on the throne. The smiling 95-year-old monarch is pictured with her papers of state on a table in front of her and poignantly nearby is an image of her father King George VI
All the same, making the decision at a time of political instability was a bold one and has also revealed the paradox of Camilla herself. The woman once seen as ‘the problem’ for the monarchy is now seen as ‘the solution’.
When the Queen first learned her son was sleeping with the wife of a brother officer in the Brigade of Guards, she regarded Camilla as an adulteress who had led her bachelor son astray. Instructions were issued that Mrs Parker Bowles was never to be on the guest list for any formal event at which the Queen was to be present.
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Fast forward to 2005 and the words the Queen spoke at Charles and Camilla’s Windsor Castle wedding reception: ‘My son is home and dry with the woman he loves,’ she said, adding: ‘Welcome to the winners’ enclosure.’ Her pragmatic private view had become: ‘Since Camilla isn’t going anywhere she may as well be welcomed.’
As for the special nugget of Welsh gold kept for royal wedding rings, the Queen is said to have drily observed: ‘There is very little of it left – there won’t be enough for a third wedding.’
Camilla will doubtless adjust to the new realities of her life just as she has to every other change since first dallying with the Prince of Wales – when both were unmarried – in the 1970s, with a rueful smile and that distinctive earthy chuckle.Her story is not one of ambition but it is one of determination.
Friends believe her success has been based on making herself indispensable to those to whom she wishes to be close. When Charles failed to propose to her in 1973, the then Camilla Shand agreed to marry the dashing Andrew Parker Bowles, a well-connected young officer in the glamorous Blues and Royals.
His parents were long-time friends of Charles’ grandmother Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and at 13 Andrew was a pageboy at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. The two had been dating off and on for several years after meeting at a coming-out ball.
Camilla herself ‘came out’ in 1965 with a Knightsbridge cocktail party when she was 17. Jennifer, the austere diarist of Queen magazine, described her as ‘attractive’, not exactly a ringing endorsement of her looks. It meant ‘average’.
Average or not, the young Miss Shand was hugely popular with ‘debs delights’ as the well-born sons of the aristocracy and landed gentry were known. She, of course, had an eligible pedigree.
Her father Major Bruce, who won a double MC in World War II, was a wealthy wine merchant and master of foxhounds in East Sussex. Her mother Rosalind, meanwhile, was the daughter of Lord Ashcombe and a member of the exceedingly rich Cubitt family who built Belgravia. Old loves have haunted many a marriage but few have rocked a throne. That Charles had been smitten by Camilla from their very first meeting is beyond question.
Where he was awkward and shy, she was vivacious, confident and outgoing. She was sexy and men found her attractive.
With the Queen setting out her wishes and calling for people to support Charles and Camilla, the duchess will undoubtedly be crowned alongside the prince at his coronation when the time comes. Pictured: Queen Elizabeth II and the Duchess of Rothesay share a laugh during a visit to Dumfries House, Scotland
Charles was deeply upset by his rejection but hardly in a position to complain. It was his own reluctance to commit himself to a woman with a past – an unforgiveable blemish in a prospective queen in the eyes of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who advised the prince on such matters – which had made it all but inevitable that Camilla would find someone who would.
The story of their affair and the break-up of the royal marriage has never gone away. Anniversaries of Diana’s death – and this year marks the 25th – have ensured that it (and Camilla’s role) remain in the headlines.
What is remarkable is how the couple have weathered the attention, matched only by the speed of Camilla’s transformation from pariah to duchess to future Queen consort. At times it was painfully slow; Camilla was the ‘non-negotiable’ part of his life.
Their appearance together on the steps of the Ritz Hotel in front of a battery of photographers seemed at the time to be the peak of their ambitions. In fact, it was only the start.
Step by careful step, Camilla assumed a wifely role for the prince – meeting his sons, running his homes and organising his social life. But she was also responsible for a new kind of prince, more relaxed, less cranky. When they were together laughter was often heard. Terms of endearment too – ‘darling’ from him, ‘dear’ from her.There were setbacks aplenty, of course. The publication of Prince Philip’s private letters to Diana, which revealed that he and the Queen ‘never dreamed’ Charles might leave the princess for Camilla, was one.
Nor was Camilla invited to Prince Philip’s 80th birthday celebrations and she was absent from the Golden Jubilee extravaganza.
In thanking his mother and in paying tribute to his ‘darling wife’, Prince Charles’s response does provoke a question: what about your other wife, mother of your sons and grandmother to your five grandchildren?
By the time of the Queen’s next landmark in 2012, the Diamond Jubilee, she was centre stage – just as she will be for this year’s Platinum jamboree.
From the moment they were declared man and wife almost 17 years ago, Charles and Camilla have looked like a couple who want to grow old together.
She also showed a generosity of spirit to rise above the vicious backbiting and envy that is so much a part of royal life.
It is hard to reconcile the prince of whom Diana said on Panorama that the ‘top job’, i.e. King would be emotionally beyond him, with the heir to the throne who today, thanks to Camilla, is a contented co-monarch with his mother. How much is Camilla responsible? The only conclusion is completely.
Doubtless there will be more hitches in the time ahead.
It is sensible that the Queen informed William and Harry of her position before making it public. Prince Harry’s soon-to-be-published memoir may make difficult reading for Camilla – another potential reason for the Queen revealing her wishes now.
When both boys set out in 2017 to gently question their mother’s friends – it was the 20th anniversary of her death – about her, Camilla’s name came up.
‘Not in a good way,’ says one friend. ‘Harry in particular had some strong words about her.’
In thanking his mother and in paying tribute to his ‘darling wife’, Prince Charles’s response does provoke a question: what about your other wife, mother of your sons and grandmother to your five grandchildren?
Camilla’s elevation to Queen might also be a lot less bumpy if the prince can find it in himself to make an acknowledgement of the debt he also owes Diana.
Source: Daily Mail
