Now she is the queen, Camilla Parker Bowles, because even that suffix, “consort”, will eventually fall, just as all the resistances put in place to prevent this from happening have fallen one by one.
The hated “mistress”, the enemy of Diana, the princess of the people that everyone would have liked to see one day on the throne. Desires and aspirations that speak of the past. Today the polls also say that the British have learned to love Camilla, even if to do so they had to somehow say goodbye to Diana after 25 years.
“Fred” has made it, bringing his “Gladys” (nicknames with which they call themselves Charles and Camilla in the intimacy) to Buckingham Palace. She has always been her queen of hers, since they met 50 years ago and now she will be the queen of all of Great Britain. The speech to the BBC, in memory of the queen, made on the eve of her funeral was the final “investiture” of Camilla.
The danger for Carlo is that after being overshadowed by his first wife, history repeats itself. While waiting for this chapter to be written, many royal observers praise the new monarch. Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth even compares her to her Prince Philip: “I have known the late queen’s husband quite well in over 40 years and thought the Duke of Edinburgh was irreplaceable. I was wrong. Watching King Charles III and his queen consort travel to the four corners of the United Kingdom this week, watching them together at every step through the ten difficult, tense and crowded days since the queen’s death, I see my old ‘boss’ (and hero ) reborn, in Camilla. If we view Elizabeth II’s extraordinary reign as a success – and most of us do – we must also say that the joint author of that success was Prince Philip. And if the reign of Charles III proves to be as safe as it began, the co-author of that success will be Camilla ».
In short, Camilla is no longer experienced as a nemesis, but as an opportunity. Even her style has started to set a trend, no one calls her “coarse” anymore as in the days of her liaison dangereus with someone else’s husband. Today her hats, the “English lady” wears, her pastel colors are in trend.
We recall that until a few months ago Camilla in the plans of “the Firm” had to remain princess even once Charles had become King. had the crown. Why did she do it herself? To be forgiven for having basically done the “trouble” of the wedding between her son and Diana? Or was it because knowing her son did he know that after her death he would grant his wife the title of Queen anyway and then it would be wiser for the British to announce her novelty?
However that day Elizabeth said: “you must love them as you loved me and she must call her queen.” Ms. Parker Bowles’ redemption day. From unpresentable to Regina it was a long step 50 years. Since 1972 when she was engaged to Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, and Charles busy escaping the fate of marrying a “just” woman for a king, but not for him, moving from relationship to relationship. And it was an ex-girlfriend who introduced him to Camilla convinced that they were two soul mates: lovers of reading, of dogs, of horses, of the countryside, of travel.
Then it went as it went, with the story turned into tragedy where Camilla played the role of the villain, guilty of not having allowed a happy ending to Diana and to this real soap opera. When the Princess of Wales on TV said: “There were three of us in our marriage, it was all a bit crowded,” Camilla became the most hated woman in the Kingdom. And she was until 2005 when Carlo decided to marry her even against the will of her mother. But these were complicated moments and the prince’s threat to abdicate his role as heir to the throne had an effect on him. The queen said yes, even if in the chapel of St. George, in Windsor, she appeared dressed in white, a decidedly controversial chromatic choice.
At that time only 7 per cent of the British accepted Camilla as the future queen. But from that moment her ascent to the throne was slow, but decisive, passing from the conquest, piece by piece, of the esteem of the English.
Imitating the composure and reserve of Elizabeth II, the Duchess of Cornwall, she worked side by side with Charles, in silence without ever stealing the show from him. Never a gossip about her and in the end even her queen had to change her mind, accepting this “unpresentable” daughter-in-law.
Camilla was invited to participate in the inauguration of the Parliament, then appointed Private Counselor in 2016 in view of the Queen’s 90th official birthday. She has been entrusted with charities and more and more commitments representing the royal house.
Then it took fate to remove the label of “court pooper”, when another “wife”, Meghan, arrived at court to destabilize the millennial order of the Palace.
Today Camilla has established solid relationships with her “daughter-in-law” Kate Middleton, but also with her sister-in-law Sophie Rhys Jones, wife of Prince Edward. The three of them will dictate the “law” in the new season of the royal saga.
The common “enemy” is called Meghan who has announced a memoir of her husband, Prince Harry, with revelations about life with mother Diana and after her death. Will she talk about the “bad” Camilla even now that she is Regina? Who knows. Negotiations are underway. The only certainty: we will see some good ones.