Many Britons had been anticipating this and their expectations were finally met when the royal engagement of Prince William of Wales and his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton was announced.
Their wedding will be held in Westminster Abbey in April next year and is to be the biggest royal wedding after Prince William’s parents wedding in 30 years. Not only that, what makes this more significant is that Prince William is second in line to the throne and whoever he marries will be the future queen of the Commonwealth realms which includes United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada among others.
While there are many speculations as to the wedding arrangements, a speculation has also arose as to whether Prince William would leapfrog his father, Prince Charles, to the throne, after his marriage. Polls conducted revealed the majority of Brits hope it would be so. After all, it is easy to see why.
Prince William’s biological mother is the late Princess Diana of Wales. Known as the “People’s Princess”, she was well loved by Britons and the world. Her charity work endeared her to the people and she was the world’s most photographed women. Despite being adored by the people, the same adoration could not be said to have existed in her marriage relationship with Prince Charles.
After a troubled marriage that was filled with rumors of Prince Charles’ extramarital affair with the married Camilla Parker-Bowles, Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated in 1992 and subsequently divorced in 1996.
A year after the divorce, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. Even after the divorce, Princess Diana still remained a public icon and an estimated of 2.5 billion people worldwide watched the funeral.
In April 2005, Prince Charles married Camilla Parker-Bowles in a civil marriage ceremony that was not attended by either his parents or her father. The public was angry as Camilla was often seen as the cause of breakup of the royal marriage, and indirectly also the cause of Princess Diana’s death.
Although Britons have more or less accepted the marriage, many still refuse to entertain the idea of Camilla being the future queen. The fact that Prince Charles married a divorcee has also been seen as an obstacle to his road to the throne.
The public was assured that when Prince Charles ascends to the throne, Camilla would not be called ‘Queen Camilla’, but her title would be ‘The Princess Consort’. However, after the announcement of Prince William’s engagement, an interview was conducted with Prince Charles and he did not deny the possibility of a ‘Queen Camilla’.
Prince Charles’ leaving the door open for such a possibility also reveals that he is not going to let go of his claim to the throne easily. Furthermore, royal courtiers have also said that “the Royal Family is expected to maintain the status quo” meaning that the crown will be passed from the Queen to Prince Charles.
So far, the road to the royal wedding has been littered with speculation after speculation, rumor after rumor. While we can only hope for the best in this succession matter, I believe that the main focus should be on the wedding itself.
A royal wedding does not happen often and Kate Middleton has been viewed as suitable for the Queen’s role. Being a commoner though, she has much to learn although there have been much comparisons of her with Princess Diana. Even her engagement ring is the same ring as Princess Diana’s!
In conclusion, I think that the succession speculations should be put to rest and Prince William and Kate be given the benefit of peace. The public anxiousness is understandable especially after the events of the past 15 years, but speculation will never help anything and will instead do more harm than good.
Evangeline is a 16-year old homeschooler from Malaysia. She likes reading, writing, editing Wikipedia, listening to music and surfing the net. She is always on the lookout for new posts for her blog: http://sugarpeach.wordpress.com/