11 February 2005

God save the Princess Consort

Charles, Prince of Wales, New South Wales, New Zealand, Canada, Belize, PNG, and a number of other unlikely places is going to make an honest woman of Mrs Parker-Bowles. The palace has announced she will be known as the Princess Consort when Charles becomes king. We won't move to a republic any faster and I refuse to get all hot, bothered and censorious about marriage styles of the rich, royal and famous.

Elsewhere, The Road to Surfdom displays a surprisingly wowserish approach to royal marriage and No Right Turn (correctly) couldn't give a rat's arse. For once, Tim is wrong.

Once upon a time Lord Clarendon's daughter Anne shocked her father and consigned him to political oblivion by marrying the future James II and VII and becoming a rock chopper. When the outraged father asked her how she could become a Papist she answered that she thought the lusts of Henry Tudor an unlikely vehicle for the intervention of the Holy Spirit.

Weirdly, the only woman to marry an heir to the British throne since the unfortunate Anne in 1637 was Diana. The vital historical questions remain on everyone's lips. What will His Excellency the Governor-General say? Why does the Church of Henry VIII oppose divorce? Will Camilla be the first Queen known as a Princess Consort? Will Murdoch get the exclusive rights?

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