Just before the coronation, there was a minor, strange rumor going around royalist Twitter about what would happen to Queen Camilla if King Charles passed away before her. The rumor was that Camilla and Charles wanted to change her title to something like “grandmother to a nation” or some such nonsense. Like, I’m sure some people are already thinking about “what happens when X or Y dies,” just as part of a general contingency plan, but the thing is, Charles and Camilla have no way to control their branding once they’re gone. That’s especially true if Camilla survives her second husband. She’ll be lucky if her stepson King William even lets her have this title:

Prince William is set to become King one day and it would lead to his stepmother Camilla being given a new title. Queen Camilla’s roles and titles have been the subject of plenty of uncertainty and debate due to the unfamiliar path that saw her enter the Royal Family.

In the circumstances that Charles were to die before Camilla, it has led to the question of what role she would then have. She would not become the monarch as that is passed down the bloodline and so the Prince of Wales is the heir to the throne. And so her new title would be the Queen Dowager as the widow of the King, which is a title that was first used by Queen Adelaide in 1830.

In recent years the last example where a spouse outlived the monarch was Queen Elizabeth’s late mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who was married to King George Vl and was known as the Queen Mother.

[From The Daily Mirror]

The Queen Mother was actually known as Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, a style she chose herself, even if people just called her “the Queen Mum.” She didn’t want to be called the Dowager Queen whatever, so she wasn’t and her daughter let her choose her own title and style. It will be much different in this hypothetical scenario between Camilla and William. I would be willing to bet that if Charles kicked off tomorrow, Camilla’s dowager title would not involve the title “queen” anywhere. She would probably be the Dowager Consort or something. And William would have Camilla shuffled off to Ray Mill permanently. Anyway, I doubt it will even happen this way. My prediction is that Charles survives his second wife. I know it’s macabre to say that, but it’s just my feeling.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.