The Crown: What does Queen Consort mean?
We’re just a couple of days away from the highly-anticipated return of The Crown on Netflix. The historical drama follows the British Monarchy, starting with Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne in the 1950s. Each season chronicles different events in the Royal Family’s history, with different actors coming on to portray the characters as they age. In The Crown season 5, we’ll be smack-dab in the 1990s, watching Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage crumble.
As fans of real-life Royal history know, after Princess Diana’s untimely death in 1997, Prince Charles took a new wife a few years later. Camilla Parker Bowles, the woman he had been having an affair with while married to Diana, became Charles’ wife in 2005. After their marriage, Camilla became known as the Duchess of Cornwall, but now that Charles has a new title, hers has changed as well.
Camilla Parker Bowles is now Queen Consort
After Queen Elizabeth II’s death in Sept. 2022, Charles was crowned King. Now, his wife goes by Queen Consort, which some fans of the family and/or The Crown have been curious about. Though the phrase might sound complicated, it’s actually pretty simple. A “Queen Consort” simply means the wife of the king. Camilla might be called “queen” now, but of course, she’s not the rightful queen through the line of succession. The “consort” bit just clarifies that. The word “consort” literally means a wife, husband, or partner of a monarch.
Though we know Camilla is now the Queen Consort and her husband is King Charles III, we won’t get anywhere near the present-day in The Crown season 5. To our knowledge, we expect the new season to end sometime in 1997 ahead of Princess Diana’s death. The Crown season 6 has been confirmed, but the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, has stated that it won’t take us to current events. The sixth season will mark the last.
Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer, The Nevers) will portray Camilla in The Crown season 5, with Dominic West (The Wire, The Affair) playing Prince Charles.
Don’t miss all 10 episodes of The Crown season 5 when they hit Netflix this Wednesday, Nov. 9.