However, because the princess engendered so much sympathy, even after airing the Waleses’ dirty linen in Diana, Her True Story, an action she later regretted, her extramarital affairs—with James Gilbey, James Hewitt, Dr. Hasnat Khan, and others—seem to have been accepted, or at least forgiven, by much of the general public as the acts of a woman desperately in search of the love, affection, and positive reinforcement that were missing from her childhood, and more important, from her marriage.
The marriage of Charles and Camilla has been something of an anticlimax. As a couple they visit foreign dignitaries and have rarely made headlines. Camilla, now over sixty years old, lacks Diana’s beauty, élan, and passion for hot-button causes. But she may be suffering from some of the same disappointments as her predecessor.
In April 2008, the Daily Mail reported that the couple “are said to argue in front of aides, and Camilla sometimes prefers to spend time alone” at Ray Mill in Wiltshire, the country hideaway she purchased after her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles. As flippant as Charles was when it came to Diana’s needs, he is “very dismissive of Camilla’s views and lifestyle,” according to a staffer, who noted, “He is ever more fussy, ratty and irascible.”
“The rows have been escalating over the past three months,” according to one “well-placed source,” embarrassing their staff, who can’t help overhearing them. As of the 2008 Daily Mail article, the Waleses had attended thirty-three domestic engagements as a couple, although Camilla had appeared alone at as many of them, while Charles had put in solo appearances at ninety events.
As glamorous as Diana was as Princess of Wales, the prince and his second wife have been dubbed by courtiers “the Glums.” So what happened to all the mutual interests, in addition to passion and sexual chemistry, that drew Charles and Camilla together in the first place—the fondness for the hunt, for Italy and its rich history, for architecture?
It would appear that Camilla is finding out that life as a royal is a lot harder than she might have anticipated from the other side of the sheets; she, too, has chafed against its limitations. According to another aide interviewed by the Daily Mail, “the problem is, Camilla isn’t really pompous or conscious of status and hierarchy but he is and always has been. She finds that very confusing and restricting. She had a free life before, having fags [cigarettes], drinking, going to riding holidays, and she can’t do any of those anymore. She doesn’t even have regular contact with all her chums. . . . He is more pedantic, more over-mannered. At Windsor recently, I was talking to him and when he finished his drink he just held it out to the side and waited for a flunky to take it. Camilla would never do that. She would find someone to give it to.”
Both Diana and Camilla had been confident that they could slip into the role of a royal with ease. Diana came from a wealthy and illustrious family and had managed to survive the ordeal of dealing with both the paparazzi and her future in-laws during the months of her engagement. Camilla had been Charles’s mistress for decades, a soft shoulder and a sympathetic ear when he confided his difficulties in performing the duties expected of him.
Naturally Clarence House denied any rift, while the couple’s friends stress that “the problem is far from insurmountable.”
Evidently, being a royal mistress was cake compared to being a royal consort. Perhaps Camilla can plumb the recesses of her soul and mine some empathy for Diana.
Charles will likely soldier on, doing his duty while gritting his teeth and thinking of England. He will draw on the centuries of “strength training” that enables British royals to maintain their famously stiff upper lips in times of crisis and pain, a talent that he once jested was“. . . 1500 years of breeding. It comes from being descended from Vlad the Impaler!”
Acknowledgments
Thanks as always are due to my terrifically astute editor, Claire Zion, and my superagent, Irene Goodman, for their astounding literary midwifery. I am also appreciative of the entry suggestions made by Dr. Mona Garcia and for the gift of her time. And I can never express enough gratitude to my husband, Scott, for his perpetual and unflagging love and support, both of me and my creative, but often uncertain, métier—especially in these times of economic insecurity.
Selected Bibliography
BOOKS
Aram, Bethany. Juana the Mad: Sovereignty & Dynasty in Renaissance Europe. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Aronson, Theo. Napoleon & Josephine: A Love Story. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
Baldwin, David. Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower. Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, Ltd., 2002.
Birmingham, Stephen. Duchess: The Story of Wallis Warfield Simpson. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company, 1981.
Brooks, Polly Schoyer. Queen Eleanor, Independent Spirit of the Medieval World: A Biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.
Brown, Tina. The Diana Chronicles. New York: Doubleday, 2007.
Cawthorne, Nigel. Sex Lives of the Kings and Queens of England. London: Prion, 1994.
Coxe, Howard. The Stranger in the House: A Life of Caroline of Brunswick. London: Chattus and Windus, 1939.
David, Saul. Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998.
Denny, Joanna. Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy. London: Portrait/Piatkus Books, Ltd., 2005.
Edwards, John. Ferdinand and Isabella: Profiles in Power. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited, 2005.
Erickson, Carolly. Alexandra: The Last Tsarina. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.
———. Josephine: A Life of the Empress. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Feuchtwanger, Edgar. Albert and Victoria: The Rise and Fall of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006.
Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette: The Journey. New York: Anchor Books, 2001.
———. Mary Queen of Scots. New York: Bantam Dell, 1969.
Fraser, Antonia, ed. The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999.
Fraser, Flora. Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
———. The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
Frieda, Leonie. Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2003.
Gies, Joseph and Frances. Life in a Medieval Castle. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.
Gomez, María A.; Juan-Navarro, Santiago; and Zatlin, Phyllis, eds. Juana of Castile: History and Myth of the Mad Queen. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, 2008.
Graham, Roderick. An Accidental Tragedy: The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 2008.
Guy, John. Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
Hamann, Brigitte [trans. Ruth Hein]. The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Berlin: Ullstein, 1998.
Haslip, Joan. The Lonely Empress: Elizabeth of Austria. London: Phoenix Press, 1965.
Herman, Eleanor. Sex With the Queen. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Hibbert, Christopher. Napoleon: His Wives and Women. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.
———. Queen Victoria: A Personal History. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
———. Queen Victoria in Her Letters and Journals. New York: Viking Penguin, Inc., 1985.
Higham, Charles. The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1988.
Holme, Thea. Caroline: A Biography of Caroline of Brunswick. New York: Atheneum, 1980.
Irvine, Valerie. The King’s Wife: George IV and Mrs. Fitzherbert. London: Hambledon and London, 2005.
Ives, Eric. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
James, Susan. Catherine Parr: Henry VIII’s Last Love. Stroud, Glouces
tershire: Tempus Publishing, Ltd., 2008.
Junor, Peggy. Charles: Victim or Villain. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.
King, Greg. The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson. New York: Citadel Press, 2000.
Leigh, Wendy. True Grace. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007.
Leslie, Anita. Mrs. Fitzherbert. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960.
Lever, Evelyne [trans. Catherine Temerson]. Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
Liss, Peggy. Isabel the Queen. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1992.
Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra. New York: Ballantine Books, 1967.
Mattingly, Garrett. Catherine of Aragon. New York: Book-of-the-Month Club, 1941.
Morton, Andrew. Diana, Her True Story [A Commemorative Edition with New Material Including Her Own Words]. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Munson, James. Maria Fitzherbert: The Secret Wife of George IV. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2001.
Palmer, Alan. Napoleon & Marie Louise: The Emperor’s Second Wife. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.
Plowden, Alison. Caroline and Charlotte: Regency Scandals. Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, Ltd., 2005.
Princess Michael of Kent. The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King. New York: Touchstone, 2004.
Richardson, Walter C. Mary Tudor: The White Queen. London: Peter Owen Limited, 1970.
Rounding, Virginia. Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Shaw, Karl. Royal Babylon. New York: Broadway Books, 1999.
Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Taraborrelli, J. Randy. Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier. New York: Warner Books, 2003.
Weir, Alison. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999.
Williams, Susan. The People’s King: The True Story of the Abdication. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Wilson, A. N. The Rise & Fall of the House of Windsor. New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
Wilson, Christopher. A Greater Love: Prince Charles’s Twenty-Year Affair With Camilla Parker Bowles. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1994.
———. The Windsor Knot: Charles, Camilla and the Legacy of Diana. New York: Citadel Press, 2002.
Zweig, Stefan [trans. Cedar and Eden Paul]. Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman. New York: Grove Press, 1933.
ARTICLES
Beer, Barrett L. “Jane [Jane Seymour] (1508/9-1537).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14647.
Bernard, G. W. “Seymour, Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley (b. in or before 1509, d. 1549).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25181.
Davies, C. S. L. and John Edwards. “Katherine (1485-1536).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4891.
Gibbs, G. C. “George I (1660-1727).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, October 2007, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10538.
Goodare, Julian. “Mary (1542-1587).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, May 2007, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18248.
Greig, Elaine Finnie. “Stewart, Henry, duke of Albany [Lord Darnley] (1545/6-1567).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26473.
Gunn, S. J. “Brandon, Charles, first duke of Suffolk (c.1484-1545).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3260.
Hicks, Michael. “Elizabeth (c.1437-1492).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, May 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8634.
Horrox, Rosemary. “Arthur, prince of Wales (1486-1502).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
———. “Edward IV (1442-1483).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8520.
Ives, E. W. “Anne (c.1500-1536).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/557.
James, Susan E. “Katherine [Katherine Parr] (1512-1548).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4893.
Kilburn, Matthew. “Sophia Dorothea [Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle] (1666-1726).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37995.
Levy, Martin J. “Fitzherbert, Maria Anne (1756-1837).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9603.
Loades, David. “Mary (1496-1533).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18251.
Marshall, Rosalind K. “Hepburn, James, fourth earl of Bothwell and duke of Orkney (1534/5-1578).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13001.
Matthew, H. C. G. and K. D. Reynolds. “Victoria (1819-1901).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36652.
Reynolds, K. D. “Diana, princess of Wales (1961-1997).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, October 2006, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/68348.
Warnicke, Retha M. “Anne [Anne of Cleves] (1515-1557).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/558.
———. “Katherine [Katherine Howard] (1518x24-1542).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008.
Weikel, Ann. “Mary I (1516-1558).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18245.
WEB SITES
www.englishhistory.net
www.lordbothwell.co.uk/macbeth.html
www.gracekellyonline.com/wedding/
www.madmonarchs.nl
www.dailymail.co.uk
www.ecorazzi.com
Lawrence H. Officer, “Purchasing Power of British Pounds from
1264 to 2007,” MeasuringWorth, 2008, www.measuringworth.com/
ppoweruk.
NB regarding relative monetary values: during the writing of this book the American dollar
fluctuated widely against the British pound, with an average conversion rate of £1 to $1.50. Financial calculations from British pounds in a given year to American dollars as of 2008 (which is as far as the Web site goes as of this writing) were obtained from www.measuringworth.com. The sums I provided “in today’s economy” and similar wording are rounded numbers, not intended to be an exact calculation but to give readers a general sense of the monetary values then and now.
LESLIE CARROLL is the author of several works of women’s fiction and, under the pen name Amanda Elyot, is a multipublished historical fiction writer. She and her husband, Scott, reside in New York City. Notorious Royal Marriages is her second foray into the field of historical nonfiction. Meet the author at www.lesliecarroll.com.
Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire Page 53