King Charles’ coronation invite confirms Camilla will use title of ‘Queen’

King Charles has declared his wife Camilla is to be known as Queen Camilla, with the ‘consort’ title to be dropped in line with historic precedence.

King Charles III and Camilla pose for a portrait in the Blue Room at Buckingham Palace. Picture: Hugo Burnand/Buckingham Palace via Getty Images

King Charles has declared his wife Camilla is to be known as Queen Camilla, with the “consort” title to be dropped.

In the official release of the coronation invitation, the wording describes “The Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla”.

A Palace aide confirmed the shorter title on Tuesday night which had been suggested for some time and which follows historic precedence. The King had been insistent to courtiers that his wife would be Queen and not reduced in statue to a “princess” or “consort”, which had been first suggested at the time of his 2005 wedding to Camilla when public acceptance of her was still very mixed.

‘It made sense to refer to her Majesty as The Queen Consort in the early months of His Majesty’s reign, to distinguish from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” a Royal aide said.

“Queen Camilla is the appropriate title to set against King Charles on the invitation. The Coronation is an appropriate time to start using “Queen Camilla” in an official capacity. All former Queen Consorts have been known as Queen plus their first name.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla have chosen grandsons and children of close family friends to be the eight Pages of Honour during the Coronation service on May 6.

The second in line to the throne Prince George will attend to the King, along with one of his Sandringham country neighbours, 13-year-old Lord Oliver Cholmondeley, the second child of David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, and Sarah Rose Hanbury.

The King has also chosen Nicholas Barclay and Ralph Tollemache who is an heir to a brewery fortune.

The Queen will be attended by her grandsons, Gus and Louis Lopes, the 14-year-old twins of her daughter Laura Lopes; Freddy Parker Bowles, who is the son of Camilla’s son, restaurant critic Tom Parker Bowles and her great-nephew, Arthur Elliot.

The pages will form part of the procession through the Nave of Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace announced as it released a new photograph of the King and Queen and details of the official invitation to the coronation.

The invitation was designed by Andrew Jamieson, a heraldic artist and manuscript illuminator. Mr Jamieson is also a Brother of the Art Workers’ Guild, of which The King is an honorary member.

Camilla, Queen Consort, visits the Refugio House community centre in Berlin.

The palace said the original artwork was hand-painted in watercolour and gouache, and the design, which recalls the Coronation Emblem, will be reproduced and printed on recycled card, with gold foil detailing.

Central to the design is the motif of the Green Man, an ancient figure from British folklore, symbolic of spring and rebirth, to celebrate the new reign. The shape of the Green Man, crowned in natural foliage, is formed of leaves of oak, ivy and hawthorn, and the emblematic flowers of the United Kingdom.

The invitation border features a British wildflower meadow of lily of the valley, cornflowers, wild strawberries, dog roses, bluebells, and a sprig of rosemary for remembrance, together with a bee, a butterfly, a ladybird, a wren and a robin.

The flowers appear in groupings of three, signifying The King becoming the third monarch of his name.

Among the flowers are a lion, a unicorn and a boar – taken from the coats of arms of Their Majesties.