Legal row hits royal wedding

BRITAIN’S Lord Chancellor has defended his view that the Prince of Wales’s forthcoming marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles will be legal.

Charles Falconer’s comments follow debate over whether the couple’s civil marriage is permissible under current legislation.

Some experts claim the present law does not allow civil marriages for members of the royal family in England. But Mr Falconer said: “I remain confident that the prince and Ms Parker Bowles can marry in a civil ceremony.

He told the Mail on Sunday newspaper that the 1949 Marriage Act, which updated the law on civil marriages, did not exclude the British royal family as the 1836 act had done.

“We have been very thorough and are confident we have got it right. We wish to put no bar in the way of the royal wedding,” he said.

Sources at the Prince’s office in Clarence House yesterday said Prince Charles and Ms Parker Bowles had received legal advice from four sources.

But Dr Stephen Cretney QC, Emeritus Fellow of Legal History, Oxford University, last week cast doubt over the legality of a civil marriage any member of the royal family in England.

He told a BBC Panorama investigation: “There is no statutory procedure whereby members of the royal family can marry in a register office.”

The April wedding venue was last week changed from Windsor Castle to the Guildhall in Windsor amid concerns that licensing the royal palace would cause too much disruption. The blessing afterwards will still take place in Windsor Castle’s St George’s Chapel.

The licensing problems stemmed from the fact that members of the public may have subsequently been permitted to wed in the castle.