Queen Camilla: the British make peace with their past

Camilla Parker-Bowles has proved to be the confirmation that, when the time comes, tradition and the weight of history save the United Kingdom from its continuous outbursts of kitsch and sentimentality.

When, this week, Elizabeth II expressed her wish that the wife of her son and heir to the throne, Charles of England, should receive the title of "queen consort" in due course, a collective sigh of relief could almost be heard in the British

.

“Dynastic preservation runs through the veins of Elizabeth II.

Last month, she stripped Prince Andrew of his ranks and honors.

And this month, she has been in charge of ensuring that the transition to the reign of Charles is as smooth and simple as possible, ”wrote Peter Hunt, the man who for years has observed and analyzed the House of Windsor for the BBC.

“Despite deep public misgivings in the past, it has merely acknowledged a centuries-old custom whereby the king's wife automatically becomes queen consort,” Hunt noted.

Lady Di's footprint in the recent history of the United Kingdom weighed so much in 2005 that Charles of England — almost to apologize for his feelings and avoid comparative grievances — announced on the day of his wedding with Camilla that, when it was his turn to reign, his wife would only be "princess consort".

When Princes William and Harry unveiled the statue of their mother, Diana Spencer, in Kensington Palace gardens last July, the general feeling reflected in the British media was one of a certain blush at excess.

Lady Di surrounded by three children of different races, to represent "the universality and generational impact of the princess's work", as the official statement pointed out.

Lady Di without gloves and with her head uncovered, "because you can't hug a child with a hat," explained Eleri Lynn, the curator in charge of those same months to launch an exhibition at the palace on the costumes and the style of the "princess of the people".

A statue of enormous size, to reflect in bronze that the character that the Princess of Wales built was,

(greater than life itself).

There were barely a few dozen Diana supporters that day around the garden where the monument was inaugurated.

The feeling, with the flags, balloons or sweetened messages of love on cardboard to Lady Di was more of recovered folklore than collective memory.

William and Harry unveil a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday, at Kensington Palace in London. DPA via Europa Press (Europa Press)

Paradoxically, the enormous strength that Diana knew how to extract from her public image in life has no exact replica in the form of a statue, such as the warmth of the princess's embrace of an AIDS patient or her walk through a field of anti-personnel mines.

The lessons inherited from that time, however, have permeated members of the British royal family.

Camilla Parker Bowles, in the long return from hell to which public opinion condemned her, has managed to extract the two most valuable from her.

In the first place, that there is nothing more effective than being kind and attentive —as it has known how to be— with the journalists and photographers condemned for all these years to be their shadow.

They have finally been in charge of conveying the idea that the villain in the story was actually a kind, friendly and close woman.

And, second, that a 21st century monarchy cannot continue clinging to harmless and irrelevant philanthropic causes.

You have to get wet, despite the criticism, as Charles of England did for years with controversial issues such as the preservation of the environment or the degradation of city centers.

The Duchess of Cornwall chose, without public hugs or exhibitionism unrelated to her personality, one of the issues in which the United Kingdom still has a lot of work to do: violence against women.

during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the organization Refuge (Refugio) that helps battered women.

"Those of us who were aware of our surroundings in those distant days remember how different life was for women, especially for those who lived in situations of abuse," the Duchess recalled.

Like her husband Carlos, to whom she has been able to transmit perceptible serenity and self-confidence in recent years, Camilla finds refuge in the countryside and books.

"I have always firmly believed in the need to transfer the love of reading to the next generations," she said recently in one of the many campaigns to that effect in which she participates.

That intellectual air that the couple shares will always be an obstacle of a certain coldness between them and a certain part of British citizenship.

And the Duchess will never spark the outburst of collective love that Diana Spencer sparked.

With 34% popular support, according to the

of the members of the British royal family that is updated frequently by the YouGov polling company

Camilla continues to occupy a very modest eleventh place on the list of favourites, headed by Elizabeth II and her grandson Prince William.

But the British, driven as on other occasions by the almost reverential respect they feel for the current queen, have made peace with their past and their traditions.

The express poll carried out by JL Partners hours after the monarch expressed, on the occasion of her 70-year reign, the wish that Camilla be called queen when the time came, obtained the support of 55% of the consulted.

Almost 30 years after that period in which the Duchess of Cornwall could hardly step on the street, Camilla is about to take her rightful place.

Time will show if there will also be a statue of her for her.

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