Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles
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The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall emerge from their blessing service. |
The
wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles took place on
9 April,
2005.
On
10 February,
2005, it was announced that Camilla Parker Bowles and the Prince of Wales would marry on
8 April,
2005, at
Windsor Castle with a civil service followed by religious prayer.
After the engagement announcement, the couple were congratulated by
Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the
Duke of Edinburgh [
1], indicating that consent has been granted under the
Royal Marriages Act 1772; the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Rowan Williams; the
Prime Minister,
Tony Blair; the
Leader of the Opposition,
Michael Howard; the Leader of the
Liberal Democrats,
Charles Kennedy; the
Leader of the House of Commons,
Peter Hain; and the Prime Ministers of the other
Commonwealth Realms.
Her Royal Highness's
engagement ring, reported to be an "enormous" diamond by
Sarah Lyall of
The New York Times on
11 February,
2005, is a Windsor family heirloom that belonged to the
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. With a
1920s platinum setting, it is composed of a square-cut central diamond flanked by six diamond baguettes. Photographs of the Duchess showing the ring to the media reveal that the main stone is not especially large.
The Prince was the first member of the royal family to marry in a
civil ceremony in England. Dr Stephen Chetney, a Fellow at
All Souls College, Oxford questioned whether Charles and Camilla could marry in a civil ceremony, as the
Royal Family was specifically excluded from the law which instituted civil marriages in England (the
Marriage Act 1836). On
14 February the The
BBC's
Panorama [
2] uncovered government documents dating from
1956 and
1964 which suggest that it may not be lawful for members of the royal family to marry in a civil ceremony in
England and Wales, though it would be lawful in
Scotland. Clarence House rejected this.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton told the
House of Lords [
3] that the 1836 Act had been repealed by the
Marriage Act 1949 which had different wording, and that the
British Government were satisfied that it was lawful for the couple to marry by a civil ceremony in accordance with Part III of the 1949 Act. Eleven objections were received by the Cirencester and Chippenham register offices but were all rejected by the
Registrar General (and
National Statistician)
Len Cook determined that a civil marriage would in fact be valid [
4], the
Human Rights Act 1998 apparently superseding any previously enacted legislation barring members of the royal family from civil marriages. There were calls for a short piece of legislation to remove all doubt, but no legislation was in fact introduced. In fact the matter was never seriously in issue, however, as it is a truism of English law that a statute is pro tanto repealed by a subsequent statute to the extent of any inconsistency, whether or not the prior inconsistent statue is expressly repealed for that or any purpose.
On
17 February,
Clarence House announced the marriage's change of
venue from Windsor Castle to the
Guildhall, Windsor, immediately outside the walls of the castle. This substitution came about when it was discovered that the legal requirements for licensing the royal castle for civil weddings would require opening it up to other prospective couples for at least three years.
On
22 February,
Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen would not attend the wedding ceremony, but would attend the church blessing and host the reception afterward. The reason stated by the palace was the couple wanted to keep the occasion low key. It was unofficially known that the Queen, as
Supreme Governor of the Church of England, could not endorse a civil wedding by her presence.
On
4 April it was announced that the wedding would be postponed 24 hours until
9 April, so that the Prince of Wales could attend the
funeral of Pope John Paul II as the representative of the Queen. The postponement also allowed some of the dignitaries that were invited to the wedding to attend the funeral.
In keeping with tradition, the Prince of Wales spent the night apart from his bride-to-be at
Highgrove, his country mansion in
Gloucestershire, with his sons Princes William and Harry. As a result of the wedding, Camilla replaced
HRH The Countess of Wessex as the highest-ranked female member of the Royal Family after Queen Elizabeth II.
The wedding took place at the
Guildhall in Windsor 12.30pm BST (12:30 UTC)
9 April 2005. Crowds had gathered on the streets since dawn ahead of the service. A civil ceremony was planned because of controversy within the
Church of England regarding the remarriage of divorcés. This was attended by all the senior royals apart from the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Interestingly, when
Princess Anne married
Timothy Laurence after having divorced
Mark Phillips, she chose to do so in the
Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian body in that country. Remarriage of divorcees is less controversial in the Kirk (as it is known), and the sovereign is automatically a member of the Kirk (in addition to being
Supreme Governor of the Church of England). For whatever reason, the Prince of Wales and his bride did not elect for this course of action.
At the wedding, the couple's witnesses were
Prince William of Wales and the bride's son,
Tom Parker Bowles.
For the wedding, the duchess wore a cream-coloured suit and wide-brimmed cream-coloured hat. For the blessing afterward, she wore a floor-length embroidered pale blue coat over a matching chiffon gown and a dramatic spray of golden feathers in her hair. Both ensembles were by Antonia Robinson and Anna Valentine, London designers who work under the name
Robinson Valentine; both hats were made by the Irish
milliner Philip Treacy.
In keeping with tradition, the couple's wedding rings are crafted from 22 carat (92%)
Welsh gold from the
Clogau St David's mine in
Bontddu. The design of the wedding rings is by
Wartski, a
London jeweller that has held the
Royal Warrant to The Prince of Wales since
1979. The Prince wears his on the small finger of his left hand.
The wedding was followed by a televised blessing at
St George's Chapel, led by the
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, which the Queen and her husband did attend, along with many foreign royals. Along with the congregation attending their post-wedding blessing, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall recited an acknowledgement of past "sins and wickedness" taken from the
1662 Book of Common Prayer.
CNN called it "the strongest act of penitence" in the prayer book, suggesting that the recitation of it is unusual; in fact it is simply the General Confession in the Communion rite and regularly (if not weekly) used at services in Anglican churches throughout England and, with minor variations, world wide. At the conclusion of the blessing, a
contralto sang the
Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed in Russian (and thus without the
Filioque clause, which is being increasingly omitted in Anglican liturgy) by way of indicating an affinity for the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches. After the blessing, the Queen hosted an 800-guest reception in
Windsor Castle.
Royals
HRH Prince William of WalesHRH Prince Henry of WalesHRH The Duke of YorkHRH Princess Beatrice of YorkHRH Princess Eugenie of YorkTRH
The Earl and
Countess of WessexHRH The Princess RoyalRear Admiral Timothy LawrenceMr Peter PhillipsMiss Zara PhillipsHRH Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady OgilvyViscount and
Viscountess LinleyMr Daniel and
The Lady Sarah ChattoThe Parker Bowles Family
Major Bruce ShandMr Tom Parker BowlesMiss Sara BuysMiss Laura Parker BowlesMr Harry LopesMr Mark ShandMr and Mrs Simon ElliotMr Ben ElliotMiss Katie ElliotMr and Mrs Luke IrwinThose not present at the wedding, but who attended the blessing ceremony afterwards, included
Joan Rivers,
Rowan Atkinson and political dignitaries, including
Don McKinnon,
Secretary of General of the Commonwealth, a number of
governors-general, members of foreign royal families, and British politicians.
Manufacturers of
pottery and other commemorative items faced a late rush to change the dates on their products. However, sales of those with the incorrect date soared when people began to think that they would become collectors items.
For the wedding day
theme park Alton Towers changed the name of "Rita: Queen of Speed" to "Camilla: Queen of Speed". Television commercials and signs around the park were all updated to reflect this change. [
5] This, however, could be seen as a
marketing strategy as the park had recently reopened and that ride has just been completed.
*"
Theme park to rename ride Camilla" at
Newsround,
BBC News. Accessed
12 April 2005.
*
BBC News - In Depth: Charles and Camilla*
Communications Unit - Prime Minister's Office of Saint Kitts and Nevis*
CNN - Royal Wedding*
Guardian Unlimited - In Pictures: Charles and Camilla*
Official Press Pack*
Telegraph article including Guest Lists 
