Just when they thought the legal tangles over Prince Charles's wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles on April 8 had been resolved, royal officials were last night confronted with the UK government's confirmation that she will indeed become queen when her husband succeeds to the throne.
A one word response in the decent obscurity of a parliamentary written answer gave ministers' official view that the marriage will not be morganatic -- a union where the partner of the sovereign does not have royal status.
A spokeswoman for the UK Department for Constitutional Affairs confirmed that legislation would be required, not only in Britain but in the 17 Commonwealth countries which have the monarch as head of state, if the king's wife is to be deprived of the title of queen.
The spokeswoman said, with the uncertainty which has characterized the department's involvement in the wedding to date: "I think that's probably the case because in all similar circumstances in past royal marriages that is what has happened.
"But I think she is not going to be referred to as queen. She will be referred to as princess consort," the spokeswoman said.
The issue is significant because part of the careful choreography surrounding the quest for public acceptance of Parker Bowles's position has been a constant denial that she would ever be Queen Camilla, though it is thought that that was Charles's ambition for her.
The sensitivities surrounding her supplanting of Princess Diana remain raw and opinion polls which have shown grudging public acceptance of the marriage have also registered hefty opposition to her becoming queen as well.
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