Queen’s title role keeps the peace
IF YOU’D asked me 10 years ago if I’d be affronted should Camilla be crowned Queen Consort, I’d have answered with a passionate “yes”. I remain a fervent Diana fan. I am still horrified at the callous manner in which – if we are to believe royal commentators – Charles and Camilla effectively enlisted Diana as a naïve young thing who wouldn’t dare make waves if they carried on conducting their affair.
I abhor the notion of recruiting an impressionable teenager from a broken home who believed she was embarking on a love story to provide an acceptable face for their adultery. The story of Diana sobbing to her sisters about Camilla before her wedding only to be told it was too late as “your face is already on the tea towels” breaks my heart.
Yet now Her Majesty has celebrated her 70th year on the throne by praising Camilla’s dutiful service and enshrining her future as Queen Consort, I can’t muster the ire to hammer out a column full of fulminating fury. Time has mollified my resentment of Camilla.
We have seen her smoothing Prince Charles’s ruffled feathers, embracing controversial causes, schlepping about the planet dispensing understated charm and down-toearth support. Everyone she meets confirms her kindness and sense of humour.
SHE can’t be bothered with airs and graces. She has never once breathed a word about wanting to be Queen. She is entirely happy in a supportive role – a perfect consort, then.
Once more the Queen demonstrates her instinct for shielding her subjects from turmoil. In one deft move she ensures Charles’s seamless accession. His coronation will proceed unhindered by schisms over Camilla’s title. She has saved her family from humiliation, the nation from discord and the monarchy from disruption. Signed “Your servant”, her epistle shows her modesty. She chooses to mark her 70-year reign by focusing on the future and the role of her daughter-in-law.
At 95 years old, after four months recovering from a bout of ill-health, the Queen has been photographed surrounded by her famous red boxes raring to get back to fulltime work. Her eyes are sparkling, her cheeks glowing and her smile is vibrant.
Mazeltov on your Platinum Jubilee, Your Majesty, from loyal subject Feltz – last seen waving on The Mall in 1977.
●Vanessa on Instagram at @vanessafeltzofficial