The following letter was published in The Times, after one or two editorial excisions, on April 8.
Sir, Queen Camilla has contributed an interesting footnote to history. She is the first person to have been officially styled Queen Consort in modern times, including in the state prayers of the Church of England, breaking a custom observed since the Reformation. Her immediate predecessors repudiated any suggestion that they should be styled Queen Consort, none more forcibly than Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII, who declared on his accession in 1901, that “she will be Queen or nothing.” Thankfully, a long tradition now been fully restored (“It’s Queen Camilla from now on, Palace decrees”, Apr 5), anticipated months ago by The Times.
Lord Lexden
House of Lords
