Replies

The queen made a grave mistake that is the undoing of this monarchy. She never should have allowed Charles to wed his mistress and keep titles.

My Canadian wife keeps up on this stuff. Her take was that the BIG mistake was not letting Charles marry Camilla BEFORE either of them were married. The understanding is that Camilla was unacceptable because she wasn't a virgin, and that it was the Queen Mother who felt strongly. NOW look what we've got with Harry!

Harry is not the heir to the throne. He will never be.

Agreed. But I’m not so sure he ever intended to truly marry her. He definitely knew the rules for who would be considered and who wouldn’t be.

the BIG mistake was not letting Charles marry Camilla BEFORE either of them were married. The understanding is that Camilla was unacceptable because she wasn't a virgin, and that it was the Queen Mother who felt strongly.

But he hadn't asked her; and she married Andrew Parker-Bowles while Charles was away at sea. Charles was a randy dude, fully enjoying the decadent 1960s permissiveness, and wasn't particularly interested in settling down until his father insisted on it as Charles progressed into his 30s.

Here is a survey of many possible theories about Camilla from Wikipedia:

Camilla and Prince Charles reportedly met in mid-1971. Andrew Parker Bowles had ended his relationship with Camilla in 1970 and was courting Princess Anne, Charles's sister. Though Camilla and Charles belonged to the same social circle and occasionally attended the same events, they had not formally met. Their biographer Brandreth states the couple did not first meet at a polo match, as has been commonly believed. Instead, they first met at the home of their friend Lucía Santa Cruz, who formally introduced them. They became close friends and eventually began a romantic relationship, which was well known within their social circle. As a couple, they regularly met at polo matches at Smith's Lawn in Windsor Great Park, where Charles often played polo. They also became part of a set at Annabel's in Berkeley Square. As the relationship grew more serious, Charles met Camilla's family in Plumpton and he introduced her to some members of his family. The relationship was put on hold after Charles travelled overseas to join the Royal Navy in early 1973, and ended abruptly afterward.
There have been different explanations for why the couple's relationship ended. Robert Lacey wrote in his 2008 book Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II that Charles had met Camilla too early, and that he had not asked her to wait for him when he went overseas for military duties. Sarah Bradford wrote in her 2007 book Diana that a member of the close circle of his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten claimed Mountbatten arranged for Charles to be taken overseas to end the relationship with Camilla, to make way for an engagement between Charles and his granddaughter Amanda Knatchbull. Some sources suggest Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother did not approve of the match with Camilla because she wanted Charles to marry one of the Spencer family granddaughters of her close friend Lady Fermoy. Other sources also suggest Camilla did not want to marry Charles but instead wanted to marry Andrew Parker Bowles, having had an on-and-off relationship with Parker Bowles since the late 1960s, or that Charles had decided he would not marry until he was 30 years old.
Overall, the majority of royal biographers have agreed that even if Charles and Camilla wanted to marry or did try for approval to get married, it would have been declined, because according to Charles's cousin and godmother Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, some palace courtiers at that time found Camilla unsuitable as a wife for the future king. In 2005, she stated, "With hindsight, you can say that Charles should have married Camilla when he first had the chance. They were ideally suited, we know that now. But it wasn't possible."[...] "it wouldn't have been possible, not then."[...]