Charles and Camiila

[tonyb]

Should Charles be allowed to marry Camilla? I think by now we've accepted that the royals are as imperfct as the rest of us, so can't we just let them get on with it? They're old enough god knows.

[andy hughes]

The question is not quite that simple. Should Charles as an individual be allowed to marry the woman of his choice - of course. Should Charles as heir to the throne be allowed to marry a divorcee - maybe not. It throws up all manner of complicated issues with regard to royal protocol and tradition - you've heard of the Abdication Crisis? Well this could be it all over again. No-one disputes Charles' right to be happy, but they do dispute the notion of the King having a divorcee as a consort - and that's something they haven't sorted out yet.

[incitatus]

Odd that it never bothered previous kings. Eleanor of Aquitaine, possibly our greatest queen consort, was divorced. Never bothered Henry II. Kings can be divorced and remarried:look at Henry VIII. Kings can commit bigamous marriages (George IV) false marriages to conceal homosexuality (Edward II and possibly Richard II), incestuous marriages (Richard III, and one could argue that Albert and Victoria were) have open mistresses by the score (every Windsor/Saxe-Coburg king except George VI)... the list goes on. The only reason that Charles can't marry her is the same reason that Edward VIII couldn't marry his: the Daily Mail doesn't like it. I think the poor old chap deserves a bit of happiness after his last one.

[vittoria]

I think they should be allowed to marry.

[SRAYN1]

Interesting point, Incitatus - but you don't make an exception (about mistresses) of George V. What do you know about him that we don't?

[incitatus]

George V sh*gged anything that moved! Any biography should back me up on this. George VI was the only clean one of the lot as far as I can remember

[spagnold]

There was a good article on the subject in the Editorial and Comment section of yesterday's Independent.

[andfos]

Edward VIII's desire to marry Mrs Simpson was also rejected by every other government in the Empire, not just the UK.

[incitatus]

And governments, of course, were totally independent of newspaper opinion in the 30's. Never really saw what it had to do with them. There were lots of reasons to ditch edwardviii, he was a fascist, perverted feckless, irresponsible cocaine fiend. But what he chose to do with his wedding tackle inside the bounds of marriage really shouldnt have been an issue.

[good2skull]

Re: Edwards abdication, I heard in a documentary an account by an ex-MI5 guy, or whatever it was back then, that the government had been keeping tabs on the King due to his fascist sympathies. At the beginning of WW1 many aristocrats in Europe supposedly made deals with the German Kaiser that in exchange for keeping their titles and land upon German occupation they would not use their power and influence to rally people against the Germans. Apparently the King did this and then the British military intelligence, finding out what was going on "encouraged" him to abdicate and the public were told that it was because everyone was upset about him about Wallace Simpson. Anyone heard that one ?

[incitatus]

Theres a lot of rumours about him: He certainly liked the Goebbels' and was chummy with AH. He also, as duke, deserted an army post during the war, so should have been shot. Best rumour I heard was that wallace Simpson used to snort cocaine from the end of his old fella. You don't get kings like that any more.

[Jens T]

Re: Charles and Camilla. It seems like they have a pretty good thing going right now. Why spoil it by getting married? :-)