Charles gets go-ahead
2005-03-08 21:45
London - Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and Camilla Parker Bowles received the all-clear on Tuesday for their wedding next month after all 11 formal legal objections against their union were dismissed.
Len Cook, registrar-general for England and Wales, said he was "satisfied that none of these objections should obstruct the issue of a certificate" for the pair to marry at Windsor town hall, west of London, on April 8.
The main grounds for objection were that the law did not allow the prince to marry in a civil ceremony.
But Cook ruled that the relevant legislation, backed more recently by the European Convention on Human Rights and 1998 Human Rights Act, did not prevent the royal marriage.
A spokesperson at the registrar's office said a total of 11 caveats, or objections, had been filed, and now that they had been dismissed, the pair had the all-clear.
Would have to go to court
If any had been upheld, the office said, no certificate of marriage could be issued and the prince would have to go to court to overturn the objection.
Under British law, anyone with a reason to oppose a wedding can issue a formal objection to the relevant registry office, which must investigate the claim and - if necessary - pass the matter along to the registrar-general.
The objections were received by the registry office in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, southwest England, which covers Charles's countryside retreat of Highgrove, and in Chippenham, where the prince's divorced fiancée lives.
One of the objections was made by Paul Williamson, a vicar in west London, who maintained that Prince Charles, divorced from the late Princess Diana, could not remarry while remaining the heir to the British throne.
The vicar said that if his objection was rejected, he would personally go to Windsor to demonstrate against the wedding.