Camilla and Catherine: The Future of the Royal Consort

Abstract

The death of Queen Elizabeth II’s consort, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2021 focused public attention on the next two generations of royal consorts: Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (now Queen Consort), and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (now Princess of Wales). As the spouses of Elizabeth’s son Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III), and grandson Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (now Prince of Wales), respectively, both Camilla and Catherine received widespread praise from the press and public during the 2020–2022 COVID-19 pandemic. This acceptance of Camilla and Catherine contrasts with how their family backgrounds and personal lives were scrutinised when their relationships with their respective future spouses first became known. Critiques of Camilla and Catherine intersected with changing attitudes towards women in their families and society in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Their transformation from controversial outsiders to accepted future queens consort reflects wider social and cultural change, as well as their own efforts to connect with the public in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.