CAMILLA. Camilla became Queen Consort of the United Kingdom on September 8, 2022 after the death of Elizabeth II. The sovereign had expressed this wish after having long disapproved of the union between Charles III and Camilla.
[Mis à jour le 9 septembre 2022 à 17h02] She is the new queen consort of the United Kingdom. Camille Shand, more often referred to by her first name alone, achieved this title when her husband became King Charles III, sovereign of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Statuses that the couple obtained after the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022. Camilla’s accession to the title of queen consort has long been at the heart of debate and it was not until February 5, 2022 at the occassion of her 70 years of reign that the Queen of England decided and expressed “the sincere wish” that Camilla be like Philip Mountbatten before her the consort and the right arm of the monarch of England.
The decision to make Camilla the queen consort emanating from Queen Elizabeth II, the British accepted it even if the subject was still debated recently. Barely 40% of Britons were in favor of Camilla achieving this title according to a Yougov poll published in the second quarter of 2022. An unpopularity that the second wife of King Charles III owes to the image of home wrecker who has long stuck to her skin. Camilla was effectively the prince’s mistress when the latter was married to the Princess of Wales, Lady Diana. As it took a long time to be appreciated by the British, Camilla also suffered for a long time from the disenchantment of the Queen of England. Divorced from a first husband, mother of two children and foreign to the nobility although coming from the big bourgeoisie, Camilla had not obtained the graces of Her Majesty when she and Charles III formalized their relationship.
What is Camilla’s role as queen consort?
Queen consort is an honorary title given to the wife of a king and to which Camilla claims as the wife of King Charles III of England. If by this title Camilla reaches the same rank and the same status as the king, she remains deprived of all the powers available to the sovereign. The Crown of England today plays a mainly ceremonial role and no longer intervenes in public affairs but retains some institutional powers: it sits in Parliament, it formalizes the appointment of the government and can also open or dissolve the government. The only case where Charles III can exercise his royal prerogative is “in the event of a serious constitutional crisis” but this scenario never arose during the reign of Elizabeth II. Camilla as queen consort will therefore have no power, however she is one of the first representatives of the Crown of England. A role that she already ensured as the Duchess of Cornwall, when Charles III was only a prince, with many commitments in the associative field, she is notably godmother of a dozen associations.
Who is Camilla Shand? Short biography
Camilla Shand was born on July 17, 1947 in London into the English bourgeoisie. Her father is Major Bruce Shand, a British army officer turned wine merchant, while her mother, Rosalind Cubitt, is from the Ashcombe Baron family. Camilla follows a brilliant career in the best private establishments in London and Switzerland and evolves in the same circles as Prince Charles. The two lovers met for the first time during a polo match in Windsor in 1971. They then began a romance before the prince joined the Royal Navy the same year.
Camilla then falls in love and then marries Major Andrew Parker Bowles with whom she has two children. She is also the one who pushes Prince Charles married Lady Diana in 1981. While Camilla and Charles are both married, they resume their affair which bursts into the open and leads to the divorce of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1996 Shortly after, the couple formalize their relationship without obtaining the blessing of Queen Elizabeth II. Camilla then begins a long process of seduction to find her place within the royal family, with the children of Charles and Lady Di, William and Harry, but also with the sovereign.
After years of effort, the Duchess of Cornwall seems to have succeeded. She is now considered an asset to the English crown. Endowed with a natural empathy, she is involved in many charitable actions. Thus, she is the godmother of Emmaus United Kingdom and of the Barnardo’s association, involved in helping children in great difficulty. She is also president of the National Society for the Fight against Osteoporosis, a disease that affects the human skeleton. Camilla Parker Bowles is particularly involved in the fight against this disease since she took away her grandmother and her mother…
Camilla has therefore fully integrated, over time, into the royal family. This is why, during Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee, on February 6, 2022, the sovereign announced that she was in favor of her son’s companion, Prince Charles, becoming queen consort on his death. . It is now done since her husband has become king of England.
If the most illustrious love triangle of the British crown remains undoubtedly that of Camilla, Charles and Diana, the new queen consort has also been at the heart of another love conflict. Thus, when Camilla meets Andrew Parker Browles, a British army officer, he has a relationship with Princess Anne, daughter of Elizabeth II. But the marriage between the two lovers at the time is impossible, the officer being Catholic. Andrew Parker Bowles then decides to propose to Camilla Shand. They said “yes” to each other in 1973. From this union, two children were born: Laura Lopes and Tony Parker Bowles. The marriage will last 22 years. In 1995, the two spouses decided to divorce.
Camilla Shand and Prince Charles met for the first time during a polo game organized in Windsor in 1971. Like Queen Elizabeth II, she was fond of horse riding and quickly fell in love with the sovereign’s son. The two lovers then have a brief affair before Charles enlists in the Royal Navy. Their paths then diverge. Camilla marries Andrew Parker Bawles. Staying in contact with the Prince of Wales, she encouraged him in 1981 to marry Diana.
While they are each married, Camilla and Charles resume their affair. It will be necessary to wait for their respective divorces in 1995 (Andrew and Camilla Parker Bowles) and 1997 (Charles and Diana) to see the two lovers appear in public. However, Camilla’s popularity rating was tarnished, especially with the death of Diana in 1997. The civil marriage of Charles and Camilla in 2005 did not change anything. Even today, the British are divided about the new Queen consort. She remains one of the least beloved members of the royal family. A YouGov poll in 2022 credited her with 40% favorable opinions. Moreover, less than half of the English wanted her to become Queen. According to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, “people realize that Camilla is ideal for Charles and that they work wonderfully as a team,” he told AFP.
When you know the history of the rivalry between Diana and Camilla, hard to imagine that it was the new Queen consort of the Kingdom of England who insisted that Charles marry “Lady Dy”. After the marriage of the Prince of Wales, in 1981, the princely couple regularly saw Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles and went on weekends to the countryside, all four of them. It’s hard to say if it was during this period that Camilla and Charles became lovers again. According to the prince, it would be in 1986, once he got wind of his wife’s adulterous story. Diana will deny and claim otherwise.
In his book “A well-kept secret”, Princess Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, recounts a scene that pretty much sums up the love rivalry that existed at the time between the three protagonists. In 1989, Diana goes to the birthday party of Annabel Elliott, Camilla’s sister. As the dinner ends, she finds that Charles, who had the unpleasant surprise of seeing his wife show up at the birthday party, has isolated himself with Camilla and another guest in a living room. The intrepid princess then decides to confront them: “Don’t take me for an idiot, I know what’s going on”, she would have told them. Camilla would then have replied: “But you have everything for you, you can have all the men you want!” An answer not to the taste of the princess, the latter launching: “Well, it is my husband that I want.”
Isabelle Rivère, a French specialist in royalties, estimated, in Shethat there is a real point that differentiates the two women, apart from their physical fortunes: “Diana and Camilla are alike in many respects but there is one that will distinguish them forever. Diana, child, She suffered from a lack of love, of recognition, and she saw her mother leave home when she was only seven years old. It’s one of those emotional and narcissistic wounds that you never recover from. Camilla , she, adored by her family, has always had an unshakable confidence in herself.