Princess consort

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A princess consort is the female equivalent to a prince consort. It is a title given to the spouse of a king regnant, if the title queen consort is inappropriate.

In Western monarchies the title is not common, but it has been announced that the title will be given to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, as an alternative to "queen consort" if and when Charles, Prince of Wales becomes King of the United Kingdom and the 15 other Commonwealth Realms. This is due to the somewhat controversial nature of the Prince's relationship with her, as both have previously been married and divorced, and they have been partners for many years. Following her wedding the former Camilla Parker Bowles uses the style Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall. If and when Charles ascends to the throne she would be known as Her Royal Highness The Princess Consort. Although she may not be known as Queen Camilla, barring an Act of Parliament, she will legally become queen consort the moment Charles ascends the throne.

Previously, all women married to British kings regnant (except Mary II who was a joint-sovereign) have become queens consort. In addition Mary I's husband, Phillip was made king consort. The creation of the title princess consort may be seen as a modern version of the tradition of morganatic marriage, which was used in Europe in earlier centuries when a royal personage wished to marry a person whose rank was too low for them to be granted full royal status under the social values of the time. The morganatic spouse would not receive his or her spouse's full title, although he or she might be granted a lower title, and the children of the marriage would not be in the line of succession to the throne. However, the issue in this case is not the prior rank of the Duchess of Cornwall, as few people would now object to an heir to the throne marrying a commoner (though she is from an aristocratic family), but the personal histories involved. Morganatic marriage was proposed but dismissed as a possibility for Wallis Simpson, who married the former King Edward VIII after his abdication.

The issue of children is unlikely to apply in the case of Charles and Camilla, due to her age.

The consort of King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Princess Lalla Salma, is styled as HRH the Princess Consort.

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