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By MICHAEL McDONOUGH
Associated Press Writer | Thursday, February 10, 2005 | (No comments posted.)
LONDON (AP) -- Prince Charles said Thursday he will marry his divorced lover Camilla Parker Bowles in April, putting an official seal on a long romance that Princess Diana blamed for the breakdown of her tempestuous marriage to the heir to the throne. The announcement ruled out the possibility that she would become queen.
The Prince of Wales and Parker Bowles will marry on Friday, April 8, at Windsor Castle, said Clarence House, Charles' residence and office.
During a visit to London's financial district Thursday, Charles accepted congratulations on his pending nuptials.
"Thank you very much, you're so kind." he said. "I am very excited."
One of Charles' titles is Duke of Cornwall, so Parker Bowles will use the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall after the marriage. When Charles becomes king, she will not be known as Queen Camilla but as the princess consort, Charles' office said.
That decision by the prince appeared to be a nod to public opinion, which has never warmed to Parker Bowles, the object of ridicule after tapes of her intimate conversations with Prince Charles emerged in 1992.
Prince Charles' sons, William and Harry, were "delighted" by the news and want the couple to be happy, a spokesman for Charles' office said Thursday.
Charles and his future wife will attend a dinner at Windsor Castle later Thursday, a spokeswoman said. Parker Bowles will wear her engagement ring, but the spokeswoman gave no details about it.
The marriage will be a civil service and not a Church of England service.
"There will subsequently be a service of prayer and dedication in St. George's Chapel at which the Archbishop of Canterbury will preside," Charles' office said.
The decision on the type of service reflects the fact that both are divorcees, and that Parker Bowles' ex-husband is still living. In general, the Church of England, the legally established faith of the nation, disapproves of the remarriage of divorced people in church.
As Britain's monarch, Prince Charles would be the supreme governor of the Church of England. Some Anglicans could oppose him holding this role as a divorcee who remarried outside the church.
The announcement received the blessing of Queen Elizabeth II, who said she was very happy that her son and Camilla Parker Bowles will marry.
Prime Minister Tony Blair also said he was "delighted."
A spokeswoman for Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, said he would be making no comment on the announcement.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the wedding service plans "have my strong support and are consistent with Church of England guidelines concerning remarriage."
Neither Charles nor Camilla possesses the star power of the still-beloved Diana, but theirs has been a peculiarly deep love story -- one that has endured time, scrutiny and such intense criticism that Parker Bowles was once regularly insulted in the street.
"It had to happen sooner or later," said Dina Pine, 73, a retired restaurant owner. "But I don't think she should be queen."
Charles, 56, divorced from Diana in 1996, a year before she was killed in a Paris car crash. Camilla, 57, obtained her divorce from army officer Andrew Parker Bowles in 1995.
A police inquest is still being conducted into Diana's death, and the royal wedding will take place before its completion.
"Diana is still in so many people's hearts," said Chris Morris, 54, a building engineer. "Queen Camilla wouldn't be so popular."
Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, first met Camilla at a polo match in Windsor in the early 1970s. Their brief romance ended in late 1972 when the prince was called away on naval duties. Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, a long-standing admirer, in 1973.
Throughout the late 1970s Charles and Camilla kept up contact and became close friends again toward the end of the decade. They remained so after Charles' 1981 marriage to Diana.
In the early days of their romance, when Parker-Bowles was still single, she reportedly told the prince: "My great-grandmother was your great-great-grandfather's mistress, so how about it?"
Diana blamed the friendship for the failure of her marriage to the Prince of Wales.
"There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," Diana said in a 1995 TV interview.
While the saga of the disintegrating royal marriage played out publicly, Parker Bowles was often cast as the villain, the object both of invective for being a "marriage breaker" and of ridicule over tapes of intimate conversations between her and the prince that emerged in 1992.
In 1994, Prince Charles admitted in a TV documentary that he had strayed from his marriage vows, but he insisted the infidelity happened only after the marriage was "irretrievably broken down, us both having tried." It was widely assumed, but never confirmed, that Camilla was the other woman.
Camilla soon became a recognizable figure and in April 1997 took a tentative step into public life when she became patron of the National Osteoporosis Society. An official photograph was released to mark the occasion.
In July that year, Charles hosted a party for Camilla to celebrate her 50th birthday.
The couple appeared less frequently in public after Diana's death in August 1997, but in 1999 Camilla met Charles' sons for the first time.
In recent years, she has regularly accompanied Charles to galas and become accustomed to appearing before the media. She now lives with Charles at his Clarence House residence in central London.
Last year, a poll indicated that more Britons support Prince Charles marrying Parker Bowles than oppose it. Thirty-two percent of respondents to the Populus poll said they would support Charles if he remarried, while 29 percent were opposed to the remarriage. Thirty-eight percent said they did not care and the rest had no opinion.
Princess Diana's home village lukewarm to news of Charles-Camilla wedding
GREAT BRINGTON, England (AP) -- There's a strong respect for tradition in Great Brington, a tidy, tiny village near Princess Diana's grave and childhood home -- and an enduring loyalty to the princess, who died in a car accident in 1997.
Many villagers said Thursday they accepted Prince Charles' decision to marry longtime companion Camilla Parker Bowles. But many were glad Parker Bowles -- whom Diana blamed for the breakup of her marriage -- would not take Diana's title, Princess of Wales, or ever reign as queen.
"They should be allowed to do whatever they want and it is as simple as that," said Jacqui Ellard, 33, manager of the Althorp Coaching Inn Fox and Hounds, a centuries-old pub in the village 70 miles northwest of London. "It is nobody else's business but their own."
Others saw things differently.
"I don't think they should get married," said retiree Ann Rogers, 60. "There is a good feeling towards Diana, most people feel the same way.
"If he does want to marry her, he should abdicate. If he does marry her, she shouldn't be queen," she added.
Charles' Clarence House office said Parker Bowles, 57, would take the title Duchess of Cornwall, rather than Princess of Wales, when she and the 56-year-old Prince of Wales marry on April 8. If Charles becomes king, she will be known as Princess Consort rather than queen.
Great Brington bar worker Alison Watson, 37, approved of that choice, and of the couple's decision to have a low-key civil ceremony rather than a church wedding. She said "a huge wedding ... would upset quite a few people."
"The royal family we always expect to do the right thing," she said. "Giving away Diana's title wouldn't really be that.
"Although this is a modern world, they should really still follow the traditions and the rules. We all know that Charles did wrong by Diana, but life goes on and I don't begrudge him his happiness."
Nearby Althorp House and its estate have been home to Diana's ancestors, the Spencer family, since 1508. Her brother, Earl Spencer, still lives in the imposing stone home amid the manicured grounds where Diana is buried on an island in the middle of an ornamental lake.
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