Camilla’s first step to win over the public

WINDSOR - After becoming part of the royal family, Camilla Parker Bowles' next trick is to win over the British public.

From the Queen's smile and the boisterous enthusiasm of her new stepsons yesterday, the Duchess of Cornwall appeared to have certainly gone a long way towards being accepted by the Windsors.

And, as she and Prince Charles repented their sins at the blessing of their marriage, they may have also found forgiveness in the eyes of the church.

But the hardest relationship for the duchess to secure will be with the British people.

Even though the wedding was warmly celebrated by an estimated crowd of 15,000 in Windsor, the public is unwilling to embrace Camilla, 57.

This was highlighted by a poll in the Sunday Times newspaper which revealed 63 per cent of respondents do not want her to become queen.

The YouGov survey also showed 58 per cent would prefer to see Charles, 56, bypassed as king with the crown given directly to Prince William, 22.

"It'll take time, five to 10 years, but the people will love her," said Avril Gunningham, a 73-year-old who was in the grounds of Windsor Castle for the wedding celebrations and shook the couple's hands.

"She just has to be as she is now, be herself."

Charles' press secretary Paddy Harveson said the public would take to Camilla once they got to know her, but insisted there was not going to be any PR campaign to boost her appeal.

It would take a slick PR campaign to convince the cynics that she is anything other than the mistress who inflicted so much pain on the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Devotees of Diana made a point of remembering her yesterday at the precise time Charles was marrying Camilla.

A group known as the Diana Circle placed flowers outside her former London home at Kensington Palace and protested when a palace official removed a photo depicting Camilla as a horse from the gate.

Officials were powerless to stop visitors in Windsor yesterday wearing T-shirts bearing the same equine version of Camilla as she still struggles to be taken seriously.

None of that would have mattered yesterday, especially during a sweet reflective moment in Charles and Camilla's journey to the Windsor Guildhall for their wedding.

On their way from the Castle to the Guildhall, the Queen's Rolls-Royce took the couple past Great Windsor Park where they first met at a polo match in 1971.

The 23-year-old Camilla Shand introduced herself to the Prince of Wales that day, sidling up to him with a forthright proposition.

"My great-grandmother had an affair with your great-great-grandfather. How about it?" she was supposed to have said.

And so began the affair which endured adulterously throughout their failed marriages to the wrong people.

They acknowledged their adulterous past by repenting their "sins and wickedness" in St George's Chapel yesterday.

"One of the nice things about today was after so many problems, when you arrived, it was such relief, 'Ah, it's actually happening'," said comedian Stephen Fry, one of the 750 guests at the service of prayers and dedication which followed the civil ceremony.

In her speech at the reception, the Queen likened the obstacles which Charles and Camilla have overcome in their 34-year romance to the fences in the Grand National.

The classic steeplechase was run at Aintree 25 minutes later than originally scheduled so as not to clash with the service of prayers for the royal couple.

It was denied the race was put back so the Queen could watch it.

"The Queen was in a very good mood, bubbly and chatty," said Fry.

"She said, 'I have two important things to announce - the first is the Grand National was won by Hedge Hunter.

"And the second is that like my son, despite Becher's Brook and The Chair (fences in the race) and all kinds of terrible obstacles, my son has come through and I'm very proud and I wish them well."

The Prince then replied in a speech which one guest said was "extraordinarily funny".

In it he made a scathing attack on the press whom in a feisty photocall on the Swiss ski slopes this month he described as "those bloody people".

"I can't compete with my mother's racing allusions," the Prince said, according to Fry, who went on to say Charles' comment about the press was "less favourable. It was very funny."

For the first time in public, Charles and Camilla walked as equals, arm in arm.

Even when her presence as Charles' girlfriend became more accepted within the royal family, Camilla had to walk a few steps behind the prince at official engagements.

Now the Duchess of Cornwall and wife of the heir to the throne, Camilla, 57, is the most senior female royal after the Queen.

Palace officials say she will be known as the Princess Consort if Charles eventually inherits the throne, but constitutionally she has every right to call herself Queen.

Titles and polls, however, were probably the last things on their mind as they enjoyed the start of their new life together on a two-week honeymoon in Scotland.

The duchess told local officials when she and Charles arrived at Aberdeen Airport on the way to Birkhall in Balmoral that she was looking forward to some peace and quiet.

- AAP