Queen Consort is not a Title!

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King George V, queen, Queen Anne, Queen Camilla, Queen Consort, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary, Queen Regnant, Queen Victoria

From the Emperor’s Desk: This is an expanded article I wrote previously here on my blog.

Queen Consort is not a title. The title of a female monarch is simply “Queen”. The term Consort distinguishes what type of Queen a person is.

There are two types of Queens. A Queen Regnant or a Queen Consort. (There are actually more but for this issue I’ll just talk about two).

Queen Elizabeth II was a Queen Regnant. A Queen Regnant is a Sovereign Queen in whom all the powers of the Crown are invested in, and who inherited the throne through hereditary succession.

Other than Queen Elizabeth II other Queen Regnants are Queen Victoria (1837 – 1901), Queen Anne (1702 – 1714), Queen Elizabeth I (1558 – 1603) to name just a few.

So absolutely nobody is claiming Camilla is a Queen Regnant!! It really goes without saying she is a Queen Consort because it’s pretty common knowledge that the wife of a King is a Queen Consort. So, since we know Camilla is a Queen Consort the question becomes how do we address her and refer to her?

In the past every single Queen Consort was simply refered to as Her Majesty, the Queen. For example, Queen Mary, the wife of King George V was addressed as Her Majesty, the Queen or just Queen Mary.

Since Camilla is absolutely the same as every other Queen Consort in history, the proper way to refer to a Queen Consort is to call her Her Majesty, the Queen. Calling her Queen Camilla is also acceptable.

Her title is not a lesser new title created just her….it’s pretty ancient and goes back to the Anglo-Saxon period.

When Queen Elizabeth II said in her statement that it was her “most sincere wish that, when the time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.” it seems to have caused some confusion. She wasn’t creating a new title or a new way of referencing a Queen Consort, she was simply distinguishing the type of Queen Camilla would be as apposed to the type of Queen she was, a Queen Regnant.

June 10, 1974: Death of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester

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Abdication, Duke of Gloucester, King Edward VIII, King George V, King George VI, Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, Prince Albert, Prince Henry, Prince Richard of Gloucester, Prince William of Gloucester

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, (March 31, 1900 – June 10,1974) was the third son and fourth child of King George V and Queen Mary. Prince Henry served as Governor-General of Australia from 1945 to 1947, the only member of the British royal family to hold the post.

Prince Henry was born on March 31, 1900, at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was the Duke of York (later King George V), the eldest surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). His mother was the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), the only daughter of the Duke Francis and Duchess Mary Adilaide of Teck (a granddaughter of King George III). At the time of his birth, he was fifth in the line of succession to the throne, behind his grandfather, father and two elder brothers.

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester

Henry was the first son of a British monarch to be educated at school, where he excelled at sports, and went on to attend Eton College, after which he was commissioned in the 10th Royal Hussars, a regiment he hoped to command. However, his military career was frequently interrupted by royal duties, and he was nicknamed “the unknown soldier”.

On March 31, 1928, his father created him Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Ulster, and Baron Culloden, three titles that linked him with three parts of the United Kingdom, namely England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Prince Henry visited Canada in 1928.

While big-game shooting in Kenya, he met the future pilot Beryl Markham, with whom he became romantically involved. When he returned from a trip to Japan in 1929, the affair with Markham ended.

Her husband wanted a divorce and threatened to disclose Prince Henry’s private letters to his wife if he did not “take care of Beryl”. The court put pressure on him to end the relationship, but he had to pay regular hush-money to avert a public scandal.

The Duke and Beryl never met again, although she did write to him when he visited Kenya in 1950 with his wife, but he did not write back. Prince Henry’s solicitors paid out an annuity until her death in 1985.

After his tour of Australia and New Zealand, and pressured by his parents, Prince Henry decided it was time to settle down and proposed to Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, sister of one of Henry’s best friends Lord William Montagu Douglas Scott.

Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott was the third daughter and fifth child of John Montagu Douglas Scott, Earl of Dalkeith (later Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry), and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Alice “Molly” Bridgeman, daughter of the 4th Earl of Bradford.

Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott

The proposal, wrote Lady Alice many years later, was not at all romantic as “it was not his way”, instead he just “mumbled it as we were on a walk one day”. They were married on November 6, 1935. The marriage was originally planned to take place at Westminster Abbey, but was moved to the more modest Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace due to the death of Lady Alice’s father, on 19 October 1935, barely a fortnight before the wedding.

In January 1936 his father King George V died and was succeeded by Henry’s eldest brother as King Edward VIII. However, by December Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson. His brother, Prince Albert, ascended the throne as King George VI.

Although third in line to the throne, following his two nieces Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, Henry became the first adult in line, meaning he would act as regent if anything were to happen to the King before Princess Elizabeth came of age on April 21, 1944, her 18th birthday. Because of this, Prince Henry could not leave the UK at the same time as the King. Furthermore, he and his younger brother, the Duke of Kent, had to increase their royal engagements considerably to support the new King.

Edward VIII, who became Duke of Windsor after abdicating, recalled that it was Henry who reacted least to the news of his abdication. The brothers had never been close and, apart from horses, they had not much in common.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester with their two sons William (standing) and Richard in Canberra

From 1939 to 1940, Henry served in France as a liaison officer to Lord Gort. He performed military and diplomatic duties during the rest of the war, then in 1945 was appointed as Australia’s governor-general at the request of Prime Minister John Curtin.

The post had originally been offered to his younger brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, who died in an air crash. Henry attended the coronation of his niece Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and carried out several overseas tours, often accompanied by his wife. From 1965, he became incapacitated by a number of strokes. Upon his death in 1974, he was succeeded as the Duke of Gloucester by his only living son, Richard. His eldest son Prince William died in 1972, aged 30, in an air crash while piloting his plane in a competition.

Prince Henry was the last surviving child of King George V and Queen Mary. His widow, who died at the age of 102, became the longest-lived member ever of the British royal family.

May 6, 1910: Death of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

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1.The Prince of Wales (eldest son of The Queen), Alexandra of Denmark, Biarritz, Bronchitis, German Emperor Wilhelm II, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, King George V

Edward VII (Albert Edward; November 9, 1841 – May 6, 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India from January 22, 1901 until his death in 1910.

The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and nicknamed “Bertie”, Edward was related to royalty throughout Europe. He was Prince of Wales and heir apparent to the British throne for almost 60 years.

During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political influence and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties, and represented Britain on visits abroad.

His tours of North America in 1860 and of the Indian subcontinent in 1875 proved popular successes, but despite public approval, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.

As king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised.

He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called “Peacemaker”, but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward’s reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam.

Death

Edward habitually smoked twenty cigarettes and twelve cigars a day. In 1907, a rodent ulcer, a type of cancer affecting the skin next to his nose, was cured with radium. Towards the end of his life he increasingly suffered from bronchitis.

He suffered a momentary loss of consciousness during a state visit to Berlin in February 1909. In March 1910, he was staying at Biarritz when he collapsed. He remained there to convalesce, while in London Asquith tried to get the Finance Bill passed.

The king’s continued ill health was unreported, and he attracted criticism for staying in France while political tensions were so high. On April 27, he returned to Buckingham Palace, still suffering from severe bronchitis. Alexandra returned from visiting her brother, King George I of Greece, in Corfu a week later on May 5.

On May 6, Edward suffered several heart attacks, but refused to go to bed, saying, “No, I shall not give in; I shall go on; I shall work to the end.” Between moments of faintness, his son the Prince of Wales (shortly to be King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at Kempton Park that afternoon.

The king replied, “Yes, I have heard of it. I am very glad”: his final words. At 11:30 p.m. he lost consciousness for the last time and was put to bed. He died 15 minutes later. The Prince of Wales succeeded to the throne as King George V.

Alexandra refused to allow Edward’s body to be moved for eight days afterwards, though she allowed small groups of visitors to enter his room. On May 11, the late king was dressed in his uniform and placed in a massive oak coffin, which was moved on May 14 to the throne room, where it was sealed and lay in state, with a guardsman standing at each corner of the bier.

Despite the time that had elapsed since his death, Alexandra noted the King’s body remained “wonderfully preserved”. On the morning of May 17, the coffin was placed on a gun carriage and drawn by black horses to Westminster Hall, with the new king, his family and Edward’s favourite dog, Caesar, walking behind.

Following a brief service, the royal family left, and the hall was opened to the public; over 400,000 people filed past the coffin over the next two days. As Barbara Tuchman noted in The Guns of August, his funeral, held on 20 May 1910, marked “the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last.” A royal train conveyed the king’s coffin from London to Windsor Castle, where Edward was buried at St George’s Chapel.

March 24, 1953: Death of Queen Mary of the United Kingdom. Born Princess of Teck

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King Edward VIII, King George V, King George VI, Mary of Teck, Princess May of Teck, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary

Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; May 26, 1867 – March 24, 1953) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 1910 until 1936 as the wife of King George V. She was concurrently Empress of India.

Although technically a Princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, she was born and raised in the United Kingdom.

Princess Victoria Mary (“May”) of Teck was born on May 26, 1867 at Kensington Palace, London, in the same room where Queen Victoria, her first cousin once removed, had been born 48 years earlier. Queen Victoria came to visit the baby, writing that she was “a very fine one, with pretty little features and a quantity of hair”.

Her father was Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, the son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg by his morganatic wife, Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (created Countess von Hohenstein in the Austrian Empire). Her mother was Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a granddaughter of King George III and the third child and younger daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel. She was informally known as “May”, after the month of her birth.

At the age of 24, she was betrothed to her second cousin once removed Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, but six weeks after the announcement of the engagement, he died unexpectedly during an influenza pandemic. The following year, she became engaged to Albert Victor’s only surviving brother, George, who subsequently became king. Before her husband’s accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall, and Princess of Wales.

As queen consort from 1910, she supported her husband through the First World War, his ill health, and major political changes arising from the aftermath of the war. After George’s death in 1936, she became queen mother when her eldest son, Edward VIII, ascended the throne; but to her dismay, he abdicated later the same year in order to marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. She supported her second son, as the new king, George VI.

In 1952, King George VI died, the third of Queen Mary’s children to predecease her; her eldest granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth, ascended the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. The death of a third child profoundly affected her. Mary remarked to Princess Marie Louise: “I have lost three sons through death, but I have never been privileged to be there to say a last farewell to them.”

Mary died on March 24, 1953 in her sleep at the age of 85, ten weeks before her granddaughter’s coronation. She had let it be known that should she die, the Coronation should not be postponed. Her remains lay in state at Westminster Hall, where large numbers of mourners filed past her coffin. She is buried beside her husband in the nave of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

January, the Gloomy Month

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Death, January, King Edward VII, King George III, King George V, Kings and Queens of England, Prince Edward Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria

Yesterday, January 22nd, was the 115th anniversary of the Death of Queen Victoria. But did you know that January has been a month where many British royals have died? We start with King George III who died January 29, 1820. His son, HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, predeceased his father and died 6 days prior on January 23, 1820. His anniversary is today. His daughter, Queen Victoria, died on January 22, 1901. Her grandsons also died in January. The eldest son of the then Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII), Prince Albert-Victor, Duke of Clarence, died January 14, 1892. His brother, King George V, died on January 20, 1936. King George V’s sister, Princess Louise, The Princess Royal, died on January 10, 1931. HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, son of Queen Victoria and brother of King Edward VII, died on January 16, 1942. The Duke of Connaught’s youngest daughter, HRH Princess Patricia of Connaught (Lady Patricia Ramsay) died on January 12, 1974. Lastly, HRH Princess Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, longest surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria died on January 3, 1981. I may have missed some But January is a gloomy month for the royal family.