Charles 'puts self before duty'
2005-02-28 08:13
London - Queen Elizabeth II has distanced herself from the wedding of Prince Charles because she believes her son is putting "personal gratification before duty", a newspaper reported Sunday.
Royal courtiers, quoted by The Sunday Telegraph, also said privately that the queen is "lukewarm" about the marriage and worried it could tarnish the monarchy itself.
It was announced last Tuesday that the queen and her husband Prince Philip would miss her son's April 8 civil marriage ceremony with Camilla Parker Bowles at Windsor town hall in deference to their wishes for a "low-key" event.
However, royal watchers in the British media called her planned absence a monumental snub even though the queen and other family members planned to attend the service of dedication afterwards at St George's Chapel in Windsor.
The courtiers told the newspaper that Prince Charles's private office had been outmanoeuvred by Buckingham Palace, the queen's official residence in London.
The queen's private secretary Sir Robin Janvrin had tried to protect her from becoming involved in a "town hall marriage", which demeaned her own status, a courtier was quoted as saying.
The courtier said Janvrin's intervention was symptomatic of the queen's persistent concerns over Charles's relationship with Parker Bowles.
Can never forgive him
"The queen believes that the Prince of Wales has put his own gratification and interests before duty by pursuing his relationship with Camilla and she can never forgive that," the courtier was quoted as saying.
Prince Charles and Parker Bowles, who have been seeing each other off and on for 30 years, finally announced on February 10 that they would marry on April 8 at a civil wedding in Windsor.
The public began warming to the marriage even though Parker Bowles was widely seen as the cause of the break-up of Charles's marriage to the popular Princess Diana, who later died in a car accident.
But experts told AFP that the entire family's reputation has been tarnished by the rushed marriage announcement, the change in venue from Windsor Castle to Windsor town hall, and the queen's decision to miss the civil ceremony.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper then published a YouGov poll on Saturday showing that the monarchy has been seriously damaged by the litany of errors overshadowing the wedding.
Less than a third of those polled now believe that the prince should become king, and a further quarter even said that the monarchy should end when Queen Elizabeth II retires or dies, according to the poll.
Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday reported that Prince Charles had complained during a candid encounter with a BBC journalist in 2003 that his future subjects have "tortured" him over his relationship with Parker Bowles.
- AFP