The Danish Royal Family have refused to entertain the notion of Camilla being styled as ‘Queen Consort’, instead referring to Her Majesty as ‘Queen of Great Britain’.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, official statements have referred to Camilla as ‘The Queen Consort’, despite there being no previous precedent for this.
Ditching the ‘Consort’ title, a statement published by Denmark’s Royal Household said: “The Crown Princess will be received by Her Majesty Queen Camilla of Great Britain, at Clarence House at 4:30pm.”
Crown Princess Mary is due to meet Her Majesty at Clarence House when she visits London next week.
According to Royal Central’s style guide, just as King Charles is not referred to as ‘King Regnant’, Camilla should not be referred to as ‘Queen Consort’ – the latter word being redundant.
In certain circumstances, it may be necessary to avoid confusion to the late Queen Elizabeth.
However, previous wives of Kings have not been referred to as ‘Queen Consort’.
George VI’s wife was Queen Elizabeth, George V’s wife was Queen Mary, Edward VII’s wife was Queen Alexandra, and so on…
By continuing to refer to Queen Camilla as ‘The Queen Consort’ or ‘Queen Consort Camilla’, we are in danger of creating a lesser title.
One suspects many of the individuals shoehorning ‘Consort’ into Camilla’s title will have no difficulty in referring to the Princess of Wales simply as ‘Queen Catherine’ when her time comes.
The situation is exactly the same in other European countries, with Queen Sonja of Norway, Queen Silvia of Sweden and Queen Letizia of Spain not using the ‘Consort’ title.
Let’s hope we take a leaf out of Denmark’s book and ditch ‘Queen Consort’ once and for all!
