Prince Charles to Marry Parker Bowles (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.
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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.
What amuses me about this is that the ability of royals to divorce and remarry is the raison d’etre of the Church of England. It not only does not violate tradition, it is its founding principle.
About James Joyner
If this was happening in America, and you replaced Charles with OJ Simpson, and Camilla with just about anyone, you’d have a story that would keep happenings in Iraq off the TeeVee for months…
Heh. that’s true. I’d forgotten about that. I was thinking that Princess Margaret must be rolling in her grave, since “the Church” wouldn’t let marry the divorced man she loved
James, you’re a man for all seasons.
James, I tried to send a ping back, but for some reason MT did not do it and I got a no permission error and a 404 page when I tried to access the trackback panel.
The link to my post, by the way, is http://tig.mu.nu/archives/067027.html.