Prince Charles to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles

The Prince of Wales has announced that he will marry Camilla Parker-Bowles this spring in a wedding set to take place at Windsor Castle on April 8.

In a statement announcing the wedding, the 57-year-old Prince of Wales said: "Mrs Parker-Bowles and I are absolutely delighted. It will be a very special day for us and our families."

The couple's wedding will be a largely private occasion and will include a civil ceremony in Windsor Castle, followed by a service of prayer and dedication at St. Georges Chapel, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

Dr Williams issued a statement to say that he was "pleased" about the wedding and added: "I hope and pray that it will prove a source of comfort and strength to them and to those closest to them."

There is more than a little speculation that the marriage will prove controversial. The Prince's previous wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, had said her husband's relationship with Mrs Parker-Bowles, whom he had known since the early '70s, was a factor in the breakdown of their marriage. Diana, who was killed in a car-crash in Paris in 1997, had maintained that there were "three of us" in the marriage.

Mrs Parker-Bowles is also a divorcee. Some Anglicans are opposed to divorcees remarrying and the fact that the Prince would become the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, upon becoming King, might make the forthcoming wedding a contentious issue on religious grounds.

However, Dr Williams said that the arrangements had his "strong support" and said that they were "consistent with Church of England guidelines concerning remarriage, which the Prince of Wales fully accepts as a committed Anglican and as prospective Supreme Governor of the Church of England."

The Queen has also issued a statement congratulating the couple. It said: "The Duke of Edinburgh and I are very happy that the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles are to marry. We have given them our warmest good wishes for their future together."

Mrs Parker-Bowles will use the title HRH The Duchess of Cornwall after the marriage. However, she will not become Queen when the Prince ascends to the Throne, using the title HRH The Princess Consort instead.

(KMcA/SP)