One of the biggest debates of the reign of King Charles III has revolved around his consort. Her Majesty has been described as ‘The Queen Consort’ by the Royal Household and by many media outlets. To some, that is pure common sense – after a reign of seventy years, the phrase ‘The Queen’ calls to mind one person alone, Elizabeth II. However, to others, it’s an affront. Queen Camilla is ‘The Queen’ and to tag on ‘Consort’ is just wrong, even if you are doing it on the orders of The King. Never mind the fact that the UK’s Prime Minister is currently in a competition to outlast a lettuce. Oh no, that’s not nearly as important. In reality, what all these sheeple need to remember is that the country’s future actually rests on not saying Consort.
Personally, I’m kind of relaxed about the whole thing. Her Majesty is Queen Camilla. She is The Queen and she is also The Queen Consort. I’m not one for getting worked up unnecessarily. However, I am old and get tired quickly and need to save my energy for other things, like finally recycling the coat hangers that I unnecessarily packed when we moved house six months ago. So maybe that’s it. Or maybe, if HM is happy to be known as The Queen Consort then we should all be chilling about it, too.
I do, however, feel increasingly isolated. And also slightly concerned that age has withered what’s left of my brain. Because I just don’t get the fuss. However, the fuss seems to have more life in it than a mini budget created by this week’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Every time I hope on social media, there is another round of the ‘Camilla is being insulted’ debate. And not content with the present day, this discussion now involves a whole host of long gone royals. The ghosts of consorts past are brought up with alarming regularity although only ever to prove that they were never called, well, consort.
Queen Alexandra, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, it appears, never had to put up with the ‘indignity’ of having consort attached to their title of queen. These three women are bandied around like the grannies of a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, to win votes for the anti consort argument.
And the debate always comes to one conclusion. Which is that the whole 21st century is involved in some mind blowing conspiracy to deny Camilla her rightful place, driven by an absolutely inexplicable fear that someone who watches ‘The Crown’, or at least fast forwards to the bits with Diana in them, might put something half witted about it on Twitter.
However, Buckingham Palace is quite clear about calling Camilla ‘The Queen Consort’. And for a rather obvious reason. Right now, ‘The Queen’ means Elizabeth II. And you don’t erase seven decades in seven weeks. Queen Camilla is smart enough to know that. So is King Charles. It’s crystal clear.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II came as a shock to many, even though we all knew that Her Late Majesty was frail. However, despite being 96 and under doctor’s orders to rest, we still took those rather charming images of her at Balmoral, appointing the fifteenth Prime Minister of her reign, as another sign that she would always be there. For she had always been.
For a huge chunk of the British population, she is the only Monarch we had ever known. The almost legendary reign of Elizabeth II is embedded in our national psyche, in the very essence of how we see ourselves. And that is summarised in those two words, The Queen. Who is on the coins? The Queen. Who is on the stamps? The Queen. Three o’clock on Christmas Day, you ask? The Queen. You don’t turn round to a whole country and tell them to get on with it. It takes time. And time changes everything, eventually.
I have no doubt it will also change the title used for Her Majesty – when it feels right. And, crucially, if Her Majesty wants it to. For there is also something rather presumptuous in this decision that Her Majesty, along with His Majesty, has somehow got things wrong. If that is how Her Majesty wishes to be known, well, then, that is up to her. Her name, her choice.
There is also something eminently sensible in using Queen Consort. It allows Her Majesty to establish an identity of her own. Queen Camilla did that very successfully as Duchess of Cornwall. Say those three words and you think of her and her work on literacy and on supporting domestic abuse victims. The same applies to Queen Consort. We know immediately who is being talked about. Communication is key to success so why create a situation where people have to think twice?
The Queen Consort is most definitely Her Majesty. It is also most definitely majestic. There is nothing second rate about the title. Queen Camilla is the first lady of the land, her life from September 8th 2022 will be described as ‘her reign’ and she already has a place in the history books as a Queen of this country. No one is denying her that rightful place, they are just using a title that was, in fact, in common parlance for centuries.
The discussion gets the day in, I suppose, and it saves having to recycle coathangers which, I can confirm, is beyond boring which is why it was put on the backburner all those months ago. I only hope that this debate joins it on that backburner soon. The UK has a cracker of a Queen in Camilla. Adding ‘Consort’ to her title changes nothing about that at all.
