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This weekend Edward’s grandnephew, King Charles III, will be crowned alongside his second wife, who is herself on her second marriage.
Camilla Rosemary Shand was born to well-off but untitled parents. Her upper-middle-class childhood included horses — a lot of horses — and practiced conversation with dinner guests.
Charles loved her when they met as 20-somethings in the 1970s, he loved her when she married someone else, they loved each other when he married someone else — and when his televised confession of their affair turned Camilla into a pariah. They endured through both of their divorces and the seismic outpouring of grief that followed the death of his first wife.
For many, particularly Americans, Camilla will always be seen through the lens of Diana: the 20-year-old princess bride; the wronged wife complaining of “three of us in this marriage”; the global superstar frozen in time at age 36. But 25 years after Diana’s death, Britain has moved on. Charles and Camilla clearly make each other happy.
And a happy monarch is a good thing. The prince who handwrote letters to lobby government ministers and whose charitable foundation drew police scrutiny over cash-for-honors allegations has, as sovereign, confined his biggest public tempest to an inkpot. He is lauded for his prescient commitment to the environment (even if his entourages and travel create a less-than-verdant footprint).
Shifting social and political mores since Edward VIII’s time also contributed to this double coronation. No government today would attempt to stop a monarch’s marriage over divorce (or hold sway even if officials were in agreement). The Church of England yielded to social norms in 2002 and began allowing remarriage within the church, though Charles’s future position as supreme governor of the church created complications that led him to wed Camilla in a civil ceremony — in a fancy town hall — from which his parents abstained.
During the religious service blessing their nuptials, the most famous adulterers in the land acknowledged their “manifold sins and wickedness.” Even now, Charles is not as popular as his mum (or his sister, son William or William’s wife). Yet he is liked by the majority of Brits, and rough acceptance is enough.
As Queen Elizabeth II toasted Charles and Camilla at their wedding reception, invoking a horse racing metaphor, “My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.” On Saturday, they assume their thrones.
King Charles’s step-grandsons will have more duties at his coronation than his brother Prince Andrew or son Prince Harry. Technically, it shouldn’t matter whether these princes are present. They no longer hold public roles (for vastly different reasons). This service is about the sovereign’s role. Yet their presence will be felt.
“It is a signal moment for 74-year-old Charles,” The Post reported Thursday. “And it matters to the Sussexes, too, since the crowning of the king is the wellspring from which flows the media interest, honors, wealth, privilege, responsibility and burdens that the extended royal family shares.”
Cams Squad: Some of the queen consort’s nearest and dearest will be at Saturday’s coronation. Expect to see Camilla’s ex-husband, Andrew Parker Bowles. “‘They are joined at the hip,’” the Sunday Times reported a source saying last month. “‘He arranges so much for her. They have lunch together the whole time. He’s right in there. He was always, and still is, Camilla’s co-conspirator.’”
Also present will be the couple’s two children: Tom Parker Bowles, a food writer and restaurant critic; and Laura Lopes, a gallerist married to a former-model-turned-accountant. Tom, who is godson of his now-stepfather, King Charles, has a daughter, Lola, 15; and son, Freddy, 13. Laura has a daughter, Eliza, 15, and nonidentical twin sons, Gus and Louis, 13.
Freddy, Gus and Louis are all pages of honor, which means they will carry the train of their grandmother’s robes in the service. (Prince George, second in line to the throne, will do the same for grandfather Charles.)
Late last year, Camilla replaced the traditional (unpaid) role of ladies-in-waiting with “companions.” Her group of close friends in the role, per The Post’s reporting: “The Marchioness of Lansdowne (Fiona), Mrs von Westenholz (Jane), The Hon. Lady Brooke (Katharine), Mrs Peter Troughton (Sarah), [and] Lady Sarah Keswick.”
Cook this, not that: We weren’t eggs-actly excited that quiche is the official coronation recipe. Sure, quiche can be served hot or cold; and it’s usually budget friendly. But Britain has an egg shortage. And quiche can go wrong in SO many ways. Plus, “let them eat quiche” seems not the cry Their Majesties want to inspire during a cost-of-living crisis.
But, hey, we’re not cooking experts.
Fortunately, our Voraciously colleagues are! Food reporter Becky Krystal saw some negative online reviews (“coronation abomination”) and decided to try her hand at improving the royal recipe. (Full disclosure: We ate two slices of her second attempt: 👍 .) The key tweaks: adding a third egg and reducing the recommended amounts of milk and cream. “With those changes, plus a not insignificant doubling of the total bake time, I pulled out a puffed, golden tart I’d be more than proud to serve to royalty, or hungry friends and family,” Krystal writes.
For other options to eat and drink like a Brit, Krystal compiled a variety of regal recipes, including scones, coronation chicken sandwiches (based on the dish released in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation) and Victoria sandwich cake. Enjoy!
A feast for the eyes? Buckingham Palace released a video showing the making of coronation quiche. To music. Really:
Family ties: In a conversation on Washington Post Live this week, journalist and author Tina Brown discussed the coronation service and the royals. An edited excerpt:
Question: What is Kate’s role during the coronation?
Brown: Actually, one of the things I’m going to be thinking about is little George. One wonders, will he be thinking, ‘This is going to be me?’ Is it a frightening thought for that child to think that this will be him, you know, after his dad?
Question: What are they going to do with Prince Andrew?
Brown: The big problem with Prince Andrew is how do you stash away, you know, a perfectly healthy sort of 62-year-old man? … I mean, the only person who wants to talk to Prince Andrew at the moment is his horse, which is why he goes riding all the time.
Things are pretty tricky with Andrew at the moment. He still dies to come back, thinks he can still come back, pines to come back, but he just hasn’t got the memo that nobody wants to see him.
Read the full transcript here.
Meanwhile, Emily Maitlis, the journalist whose BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew sparked a furor in 2019, recently reflected on the fallout of his defense of his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “When the royals meet the BBC — traditionally — someone always gets fired. None of us ever thought for one moment it would be the prince.”
Bottom’s up: The Prince and Princess of Wales popped into a west London pub on Thursday — after traveling across the capital on the Tube! — and chatted with staff there and at other businesses in Soho about their preparations for coronation crowds.
Coverage from around The Post
“In the palace, they do not talk Californian.” London correspondent Karla Adam interviewed Valentine Low about his book, “Courtiers: Intrigue, Ambition, and the Power Players Behind the House of Windsor.” The discussion includes palace machinery (“it’s pretty pale, male and stale”), British media coverage of Harry and Meghan, the racism row over Lady Susan Hussey, and more.
Editorial cartoon by Nikola Listes.
Department of Grand Digs No One Actually Enjoys Living In: “Buckingham Palace remains the official London residence of the British monarch. But it is not the actual London residence of this monarch,” write Karla Adam and Mary Jordan. Charles and Camilla are based at Clarence House, the five-bedroom white stucco mansion — very close to Buckingham Palace — “where they have lived together for 20 years.”
What’s not to love about 700-plus-room Buck House? “The palace is huge — 15 times bigger than the White House — and includes 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. A member of the royal household said it takes 10 minutes for a waiter to carry canapés on silver trays from the basement kitchens to guests in the reception room.”
“Giving me a pulpit, or a lectern, to occupy could be a hazardous move,” warned then-Prince Charles. London-based breaking-news reporter Adela Suliman has rounded up some of Charles’s most memorable quotes. Standouts include: Climate-change deniers are “the headless chicken brigade.” He derided postwar architecture as “Frankenstein monsters, devoid of character, alien and largely unloved.” And who has forgotten: “I just come and talk to the plants.”
What does it mean to modernize a coronation? This Post video brings you up to speed in three minutes.
Wondering about royals beyond the Brits? Here’s a handy guide to the world’s 28 other monarchs. Seventeen are men — and some are much wealthier than King Charles.
Scenes from the Buckingham Palace garden party Wednesday.
Send us your royal questions and comments! Follow @washingtonpost and @postopinions on Instagram for more coverage.
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