On the eve of Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth issued a letter thanking everyone for their goodwill, loyalty and support, and re-affirming her continued service, even signing the letter 'Your Servant'.
What she also did - quite surprisingly - was to show her full support for the wife of her eldest son and heir, HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, for the second time in just over a month in expressing her "wish that... Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service". Following Her Majesty's unprecedented (in modern times at least) elevation of her daughter-in-law to a Royal Lady of the Order of the Garter at the beginning of the year, she has now made it abundantly clear that she feels that Camilla is due the "same support that you have given me". In one fell swoop The Queen has done away with the somewhat clumsy idea that Camilla could be called Princess Consort and has paved the way to Camilla being crowned alongside Prince Charles when, "in the fullness of time" he becomes King. She is destined to wear the Crown fashioned for the late Queen Mother in 1937, coincidentally fashioned in platinum.
The point that the idea of the title Princess Consort was unworkable was raised in one of my first blogs. The paradox was that, on her husband ascending the Throne as King Regnant, Camilla would have been 'demoted' to an ordinary princess for whom, heraldically, there has been no precedent. To begin with, would she, ranking alongside her husband, carry a Crown or just a Coronet above her Shield?
Her Majesty remains ever as much of a pragmatist as her late husband and consort...
What she also did - quite surprisingly - was to show her full support for the wife of her eldest son and heir, HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, for the second time in just over a month in expressing her "wish that... Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service". Following Her Majesty's unprecedented (in modern times at least) elevation of her daughter-in-law to a Royal Lady of the Order of the Garter at the beginning of the year, she has now made it abundantly clear that she feels that Camilla is due the "same support that you have given me". In one fell swoop The Queen has done away with the somewhat clumsy idea that Camilla could be called Princess Consort and has paved the way to Camilla being crowned alongside Prince Charles when, "in the fullness of time" he becomes King. She is destined to wear the Crown fashioned for the late Queen Mother in 1937, coincidentally fashioned in platinum.
The point that the idea of the title Princess Consort was unworkable was raised in one of my first blogs. The paradox was that, on her husband ascending the Throne as King Regnant, Camilla would have been 'demoted' to an ordinary princess for whom, heraldically, there has been no precedent. To begin with, would she, ranking alongside her husband, carry a Crown or just a Coronet above her Shield?
Her Majesty remains ever as much of a pragmatist as her late husband and consort...
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