Love Is in the Heir: Charles to Wed Longtime Mistress

So ends years of tabloid and taxicab speculation.

In a surprise announcement, Britain’s future king, Prince Charles, declared Thursday that he would marry his live-in lover, Camilla Parker Bowles, in a spring ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The divorcee will never become Queen Camilla, nor will she take the title Princess of Wales that was bestowed on Diana, her predecessor. Diana’s marriage to Charles ended in divorce, partly because of Parker Bowles, and she died a year later, along with her boyfriend, in a Paris car accident.

In a sort of constitutional compromise, Parker Bowles, 57, will receive the title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall. If Charles becomes king, she will be called Her Royal Highness the Princess Consort. “Those are the only royal titles that have been confirmed so far,” said a representative of the Prince of Wales.

Charles’ great-uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 so he could marry an American divorcee. However, Britain barely batted an eyelash at the consequence of the prince’s impending nuptials.

But the newspapers were having a field day. Even the stuffy Times of London couldn’t resist. Its headline read: “After 30 Years, Charles Puts His Affair in Order.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair wished the couple “every happiness” on behalf of himself and his Cabinet. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who serves as spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Church, said, “I am pleased that Prince Charles and Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles have decided to take this important step.”

The announcement came in the form of a brief, formal statement from the prince’s household, which read, “It is with great pleasure that the marriage of HRH the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles is announced. It will take place on Friday 8th April, 2005, at Windsor Castle.”

Later, Charles issued a statement that said, “Mrs. Parker Bowles and I are absolutely delighted. It will be a very special day for us and our families.”

Queen Elizabeth gave the union her royal blessing. “The Duke of Edinburgh and I are very happy that the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Parker Bowles are to marry. We have given them our warmest good wishes for their future together.”

The 56-year-old prince’s two sons by Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry, announced that they too were delighted at the news of their father’s marriage.

Although the marriage will cause little political repercussion around Britain, the news dominated the airwaves Thursday. Discussions and surveys showed general acceptance of the marriage but strong reservations about Charles’ new wife becoming “Queen Camilla.”

The memory of Diana is still strong among the British public, which saw Parker Bowles as the spoiler of what began as a fairy-tale marriage.

Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, a onetime nursery school teacher, were wed in a lavish, glamorous ceremony in 1981 in London’s classic landmark St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Their marriage was made in tabloid heaven, their every move scrutinized and documented by eager paparazzi. But it was also marked by widespread speculation about their apparent unhappiness and by questions of infidelity.

In 1993, the tabloid press published a transcript of a taped explicit phone conversation between Charles and Parker Bowles, then wife of a British brigadier general.

Charles’ relationship with Parker Bowles began in 1971 when they met at a polo match on the grounds of Windsor Castle. They continued to see each other throughout Charles’ tumultuous marriage to Diana, who said the relationship was the cause of her eventual breakup with the prince. “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” she said in a TV interview.

From the beginning, it was clear that Parker Bowles, who married in 1973 and divorced in 1995, shared Charles’ sporting life more than Diana, his junior by 13 years.

Since the early days of his marriage, Charles was clearly more at home on a horse or shooting grouse and fishing for salmon than on a dance floor, listening to pop music or watching ballet, which were among Diana’s favorite pastimes.

Charles and Parker Bowles were often seen fox hunting together or on the polo field where Charles was a regular player.

Charles and Diana divorced in 1996. Diana, as Princess of Wales, found her calling as an active patron of myriad charities, particularly those supporting sick and disadvantaged children and old people. She championed AIDS victims and traveled to war-torn and poverty-stricken countries, visiting orphanages and hospitals.

Her sudden death in a car accident in August 1997 in Paris, along with boyfriend Dodi Fayed, provoked an outpouring of grief in Britain and abroad, forcing Charles and Parker Bowles to keep their relationship in the background for some time.

Gradually the couple began appearing together in public in carefully choreographed occasions. Many see their decision to marry as the logical conclusion to a difficult situation.

“I don’t think the public is hostile to the remarriage,” said Sarah Richardson, a constitutional historian at Warwick University. “What does surprise me is the recognition of her role as Princess Consort, which will put her in a spotlight where she will have to deliver and be an active supporter of Charles almost on a par with Diana.”

Relief rather than pleasure was expressed by many Britons interviewed Thursday by TV networks.

“I guess it was better that they got married rather than not,” said Marianne McElwee, 24, a website manager.

“I’m not keen on her,” McElwee added. “After all, Charles was always in a relationship with her before he met Diana and he went on seeing her after that, which didn’t make Diana very happy.”

“I think it was inevitable, but I feel saddened,” marketing consultant David Pickering, 44, told the BBC.

Although the acceptance of a king-to-be, himself divorced, with a divorcee wife, is indicative of the changing face of Britain, the announcement also forces official recognition of the flawed and human side of royalty.

Archbishop Williams said Thursday on TV broadcasts, “These arrangements have my strong support and are consistent with Church of England guidelines concerning remarriage, which the Prince of Wales fully accepts as a committed Anglican and as prospective Supreme Governor of the Church of England.”

The monarch of Britain is also the recognized head of the Church of England; Defender of the Faith is one of the many royal titles. It had been considered unsuitable for kings and queens to marry divorced partners.

Over the years, however, a slow change has come over the royal family as one by one, Queen Elizabeth’s daughter and two of her sons went through divorce.

“This wedding is a pragmatic response and reflection of the fact that Charles is in this long-term relationship and it would be more difficult and embarrassing for him to carry on with it than to get married,” said historian Richardson.

Royal marriages must be approved on several levels, so Prime Minister Blair’s statement of approval was essential. Charles also will require an Act of Parliament before his wedding day, a foregone conclusion in this case.

The last time Parliament adjudicated on a royal union was in 1936, when it approved the abdication of King Edward VIII.

In 1955, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth’s sister, was forced to break off her relationship with a divorced man, Capt. Peter Townsend.

Charles and Parker Bowles’ spring wedding will be a civil service followed by a service of prayer and dedication in the Chapel of St. George at Windsor Castle. No details were disclosed Thursday except that the archbishop had agreed to celebrate the religious ceremony.

The couple will spend their honeymoon in Scotland at the royal retreat of Birkhall, on the grounds of the Balmoral estate, where Charles is said to often have taken refuge from the public and media glare.

Thursday evening, the couple attended a gala dinner for about 250 people at Windsor Castle in aid of one of the prince’s charities.

Attention was focused on Charles’ fiancee, who was wearing her engagement ring for the first time -- a diamond and platinum heirloom reportedly from the prince’s grandmother, the Queen Mother, who died in 2002 at the age of 101.

The smiling Parker Bowles, dressed in a glittering, floor-length fuchsia dress and a triple strand of pearls, told waiting crowds that the prince had proposed to her on bended knee. “I’m just coming down to Earth,” she said, flashing the ring for photographers.

Charles, in a tuxedo, told reporters, “I am very happy.”