Will Camilla Parker Bowles ever become Britain’s queen? Here’s why the Duchess of Cornwall’s ‘princess consort’ royal title might change when Prince Charles ascends the throne

Jan 4 , 2022

Which crown and title will Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall wear, should her husband Prince Charles become king? Photo:@themountbattenwindsors/Instagram

The queen mother was first queen consort to her husband King George VI, then attained her current title after the ascension of her daughter Elizabeth

Out of respect for Princess Diana and her tragic death in a 1997 car accident in Paris, Buckingham Palace chose to call Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, not Princess of Wales

Will Camilla, wife of Britain’s Prince Charles, ever become queen of England? The story is a little more complicated than you may have thought, so let’s unpack it …

Britain’s Prince Charles and his then-fiancée Camilla Parker Bowles arrive for a party at Windsor Castle, England in 2005, following the announcement of their engagement. Photo: AP

At the time of their marriage in 2005, the couple issued a statement reading: “Camilla will use the title ‘HRH the Princess Consort’ when the Prince of Wales accedes to the throne.”

In 2020, The Times quoted an official at Clarence House, the official residence of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, as underlining this, saying: “The intention is for the duchess to be known as princess consort when the prince accedes to the throne. This was announced at the time of the marriage and there has been absolutely no change at all.”

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Photo: @clarencehouse/Instagram

We need to ask though, why princess consort and not queen consort? After all, the queen’s mother became queen consort upon the coronation of her husband King George VI. Even after his death in 1952, and the accession of her daughter Elizabeth to the crown, she retained the title Queen Elizabeth the queen mother.

Apparently, the decision to refuse Camilla the title of queen was made partly out of respect for Charles’ late wife, Princess Diana, after her death in 1997 in a car accident in Paris. That is also why Camilla doesn’t use “Princess of Wales” and opts to go by the title “Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall”.

Royal expert Marlene Koenig has opined that when Camilla wed Prince Charles, “Camilla was not popular or well liked, [although] this has changed a lot since the marriage as Camilla has taken on a lot of patronages and Charles is a lot happier. Still, [there was] a lot of tension and anger among a certain element of the population – so it was decided that Camilla would be styled as the Duchess of Cornwall, even though, of course, she is the Princess of Wales.”

The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles and Camilla. Photo: @clarencehouse/Instagram

While it seems that the matter of Camilla’s queenship has been settled, here’s the rub. In 2005, Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay stated that it was, “absolutely unequivocal that she automatically becomes queen when he becomes king”, an interpretation confirmed by then-constitutional affairs minister Christopher Leslie.