Following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, Prince Charles became the King of Britain as the eldest son of the Queen. Naturally, King Charles's wife, Camilla, became the "Queen Consort," but she will definitely not become a Queen. According to royal custom in Britain, the throne can only be inherited by members who are married to the royal family. Under these customs, Prince Philip did not become King of Britain, even though he was married to Queen Elizabeth II for more than 7 decades, and these customs grant the husband of the Queen from outside the royal family the title of Prince only.
King Charles married Camilla in 2005, and since then she has been recognized, albeit reluctantly by some, as a key member of the royal family, whose good influence on her husband helped him navigate his royal role. On the seventieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne in February of this year, Elizabeth gave her blessing to Camilla to become Queen Consort when Charles succeeds her on the throne, stating at the time that she was doing so "with sincere wish."
Camilla Shand was born in 1947 to a wealthy family; her father was a Major and a wine merchant who married into the aristocracy. She grew up on a rural farm and received her education in London before going to the Mont Frühlen School in Switzerland and then to the British Institute in France. She became involved in social circles that brought her into contact with Charles, whom she met at a polo field in the early seventies. After the beloved and glamorous Princess Diana, Charles's first wife, died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 at the age of 36, the media depicted Camilla as the most unpopular woman in Britain.
