Home>News Center>Life
         
 

Royal advisors under fire over British wedding
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-24 16:35

Somebody has not been doing their job in Britain's royal household, according to royal watchers, after a series of missteps in the preparations for the wedding of heir to the throne Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.


The public are warming, slowly, to the long-simmering love affair of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles and approve of their upcoming marriage, according to a poll published in The Times. [AFP]

An unprecedented chain of events, from the rushed marriage announcement two weeks ago to the sudden decision by Queen Elizabeth II to miss her son's civil ceremony, has tarnished the whole family's reputation, they say.

"It has been appallingly managed, very unlike the royal family. They have got egg on their face over this," said Nicholas Davies, a renowned authority on the royal family and author of a dozen related books and biographies.

The prince and queen's various advisors should have sorted out the details more carefully, he told AFP.

"These people are so on the ball normally, it just seems extraordinary. Either they had an off day at the office or they are very bad at working speedily," Davies said.

The royal household is hastily making the final arrangements for Charles, 56, to wed his longtime mistress, 57, on April 8 after the couple's engagement was announced prematurely to avoid a newspaper leak.

Unfortunately, the wedding -- which was always going to be controversial due to Camilla's perceived role in the break up of Charles's first marriage to the late Princess Diana -- has hit several obstacles that could have been avoided.

"They have just not got the proper advisors," said another royal family expert Charles Mosley, editor-in-chief of Debrett's, which publishes British guides to etiquette and the aristocracy.

"Or, they may have good advisors but they just do not take the advice, that is the other side of the coin," he noted.

Clearly there has been insufficient research into the marriage plans, Mosley said, noting in particular an embarrassing backtrack on the actual venue.

Clarence House, Charles's office, announced last week that the pair would move their civil wedding from Windsor Castle, one of the queen's official residences just outside London, to the town hall down the road because the royal palace has no licence to hold a civil marriage.

Royal advisors "are people who are supposed to be at the top of their profession... and they can't even do their homework," said Mosley.

"It is absolutely appalling."

Throwing another spanner in the works, the queen decided on Tuesday that she would skip the civil ceremony at the very public Guildhall and attend only a subsequent blessing and prayer service at a chapel inside Windsor Castle.

"She does not want to be part of the circus in the middle of Windsor because the wedding will be a circus," said Davies, blaming the whole farce on the fact that the arrangements had been rushed.

The advisors "will be totally embarrassed there will be profuse apologies," predicted the author, who is planning to publish a book entitled "Rebel Royals" around the time of the wedding.

"Overseas it really looks an absolute mess," he said. "It will be a really black mark and that is very, very embarrassing for the queen who hates to be seen like that. It would not surprise me at all if a few heads roll."

Some have even questioned the legality of the wedding, arguing that the future king must have a religious wedding.

Hoping to calm such fears, Britain's top legal authority, the Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer -- who advised the royal family on the wedding -- issued a statement Wednesday confirming that it was within the law.

But the confusion and backtracking have left royal commentators astounded.

"I don't quite know why it descended into such a fiasco," said Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine.

"Normally (royal weddings) are planned meticulously by the master of the household and this one obviously hasn't been," she told AFP.

London's Evening Standard newspaper pointed the finger of blame at Charles's private secretary and advisor Michael Peat, quoting an anonymous royal source describing his position as "most uncomfortable".

But a Clarence House spokeswoman refused to comment on whether anyone was being blamed for the various hiccups in the royal arrangements, insisting that they were "all in the normal course of working out a wedding".



Phoenix TV anchor Xu Gehui weds secretly
Milan Fashion Week
Japanese Princess Aiko plays in snow
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

Government enacts new rule to regulate petitioning

 

   
 

Watchdogs go after malignant red dye

 

   
 

Vice-governor loses job for mine accident

 

   
 

Bidding starts on high-speed railway

 

   
 

Chirac calls on EU to lift arms embargo

 

   
 

Nation seeks energy efficient buildings

 

   
  Royal advisors under fire over British wedding
   
  Singer Chen Rujia died a sudden death: paper
   
  Beijing acts to scrap bias against migrants
   
  Snowy night shines bright in capital
   
  Phoenix TV anchor Xu Gehui weds secretly
   
  NBA lottery to be launched in China
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Support grows for Charles wedding to Camilla
   
Prince Charles remembers grandma in 27-minute song
   
Prince Charles: I'm not out of touch
   
Prince Charles away from wedding over consort seating
   
Prince Charles to marry again? Who cares
   
Music and fashion stars merge at London bash
   
UK's Prince Charles gets yet another title -- paper
  Feature  
  Chen Ning Yang, 82, to marry a 28-year-old woman  
Advertisement