E-Paper
Charles, Camilla wed in civil ceremony
Camilla now takes on Diana's previous status as Princess of Wales, the title she wants to avoid.
Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles married on Saturday at the 17th century Guildhall, capping a decades-long romance that survived scandal and turmoil through the prince's first marriage to Princess Diana.
Camilla now takes on Diana's previous status as Princess of Wales, although she plans to defer to public sentiment by avoiding the title and will instead be known as the Duchess of Cornwall. To the cheers of an estimated 15,000 well-wishers, the couple was driven back to Windsor Castle in a vintage Rolls Royce as a jazz band played "Congratulations."
The bride was wearing an oyster silk basketweave coat with a herringbone stitch and a matching chiffon dress. She also wore a matching straw and lace hat with feather details. Instead of the military uniform he wore at his first wedding, Charles donned formal morning wear, and the simplicity of the wedding at Windsor's brick-and-marble town hall stood in stark contrast to the pomp and grandeur of the first royal nuptials in St. Paul's Cathedral.
 |
| Prince Charles and Camilla: Together at last! |
Excited cheers greeted Prince William and Prince Harry as the formally attired young men arrived at the Guildhall. William smiled at the crowd, and Harry waved shyly.
Jasmine and Lily of the Valley - known to symbolize the return of happiness - lined the hall where the civil ceremony took place. As the couple arrived, there were some scattered boos and catcalls from onlookers but they were drowned out by overwhelming applause and cheer.
Nearly eight years after Diana's death, some have bridled at accepting Parker Bowles as a future queen, seeing her relationship with Charles as the reason his first marriage fell apart. The wedding represents a break in tradition for the fifty-something divorcees who were getting married in a civil ceremony that Queen Elizabeth II was not attending. Lining the streets of this handsome old town buffed to a royal luster for the wedding, the crowds waited in chilly sunshine for the nuptials, postponed a day for the pope's funeral. "It's up to him who he marries," said Barbara Murray, 41, who camped out in this royal hub overnight with her two daughters to stake out a vantage point to see the couple. "Whoever he chose wouldn't be the same as Diana."
Security was very tight. In addition to snipers on rooftops, plainclothes officers moved around in the crowd, sniffer dogs and police armed with handguns watched over streets around Windsor Castle.
Thames Valley Police, responsible outside the castle, had 550 officers on duty and Scotland Yard, which is in charge inside the castle had dozens, including sharpshooters.
Camilla will technically be the Princess of Wales - a title she wishes to avoid using, in deference to memories of Diana. Camilla will be known, instead, as Duchess of Cornwall.
When Charles takes the throne, she legally will be queen, but wishes to be known as Princess Consort - a bow to opinion polls that show 70 percent of the population opposed to Queen Camilla. On Friday, Prince Charles joined world leaders and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome. Charles had delayed his wedding by a day to attend the service. Parker Bowles, meanwhile, met Friday with her couturier, milliner and shoe designer _ adding the finishing touches to her wedding day outfit, which was kept top secret.
In keeping with tradition, Parker Bowles spent Friday night at Clarence House, the London residence of the Prince of Wales, while Prince Charles spent the night at his country mansion in Gloucestershire, with his sons Princes William and Harry. Parker Bowles, wearing a blue jacket, smiled and waved Saturday morning as she set out for Windsor, a riverside town 20 miles (30kms) west of London.
Inside Windsor Castle's gates, tents were erected for the world's media which had descended upon the township, while every vantage point, from private balconies to the roof of a local liquor store, was converted into temporary broadcast location.
Hotels were fully booked, and souvenir shops were doing a brisk trade in royal wedding mugs and tea towels.
Charles met Camilla Shand more than 30 years ago discovering a love of rural life. But he sailed off with the Royal Navy without cementing their relationship; in his absence she married Andrew Parker Bowles, who is expected to attend the ceremony. In 1981, the prince married 20-year-old Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral, a storybook wedding watched by thousands. The young princess won the nation's heart, but she didn't hold her husband's. Charles acknowledged years later that he had broken his marriage vows after the marriage had broken down and despite his and Diana's efforts to save it.
"There were three of us in that marriage," Diana said later - but she admitted affairs of her own.
Many Britons took Diana's view, vilifying Parker Bowles as a royal home-wrecker.
Charles' and Camilla's marriages both collapsed - she was divorced in 1995, he in 1996. Andrew Parker Bowles remarried in 1996, and was on the guest list for Saturday's religious ceremony. After Diana's death in 1997, Charles and Camilla cautiously began making their relationship public. Their first public appearance together came in 1999; the first public kiss in 2001. In February, the prince and Parker Bowles announced that they would wed.
