Coronation king Charles III

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Mon, May 08 2023, 4:13 pm

zaq wrote:

He didn't commit when he went to serve in the military. He expected that Camilla would play Penelope to his Odysseus and repel any and all suitors during his years-long absence. Since he had made no commitment to her, Camilla, unlike her future stepdaughter-in-law Kate, didn't wait around for years and years in the hopes that he would eventually get around to proposing marriage, but grabbed her chance to get married when she could.

He wouldn't commit to her when they were both honorably available. He wouldn't commit to his marriage vows, either. He was interested mainly when one or the other was legally and morally unavailable. That's what I call a commitment-phobe.

1) Camilla married a career soldier, who did multiple tours in Africa, so I doubt Charles’ military service was the deciding factor.
2) Charles was already in the military when they got involved. He enlisted in March 1971 and they didn’t start dating until late that year or 1972.
3) Charles was never gone for multiple years. He served on 3 ship commands in the Royal Navy and did a quick stint as a helicopter pilot at the end of his career.. None of his ships ever deployed, he was on shore/training duty the entirety of his career. The longest he was gone was 9 months from Feb - Nov 1973 on the HMS Minerva. As I understand it, Camilla and APB had an on and off relationship the entire she and Charles were involved. They were engaged less than a month after Charles joined the Minerva in 1973 (rumor has it that APB’s hand was forced by their fathers) and apparently Charles begged her to call it off. He only served another 3 years in the military, and had one additional stint at sea the following year, again from Feb-Nov. The rest of the time he was in the UK.

By all accounts Camilla was head over heels for Andrew Parker-Bowles, and Charles was being pressured at this time by Lord Mountbatten to court his cousin Amanda Knatchbull, who eventually turned down his proposal. I think they wouldn’t have let him marry Camilla at the time.