Charles, Camilla finally tie knot

WINDSOR, England — Thirty-four years after they first met and fell in love, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are finally husband and wife.

The heir to the British throne and his longtime paramour were wed early Saturday afternoon in a sedate and unadorned civil ceremony behind closed doors at the local clerk's office. It was followed by a regal and solemn prayer service, broadcast worldwide, at St. George's Chapel inside the walls of the 1,000-year-old Windsor Castle, ancient home and symbol of the monarchy.

The two emerged from the chapel arm-in-arm and smiling widely, visibly relieved to have overcome a series of last-minute obstacles, confusion and parental disapproval that had threatened to undermine the day. In the end, the event was considerably less grandiose than the pageantry that surrounded Charles' wedding to Diana Spencer in 1981, but seemed far more in line with the reduced expectations of a middle-aged couple — Charles is 56, Camilla 57 — seeking a second chance at life and love.

For their friends and supporters, the ceremony marks the start of a new chapter in which Charles and Camilla — long cast by the glamorous Diana's acolytes as an adulterous couple who drove their beloved, despairing princess to an early and tragic death — would be given a fresh opportunity to endear themselves to the British public. It is also a chance for them to emerge at last from the shadow of Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997.

"It's the beginning of a new era," said Simon Sebag Montefiore, a historian who was one of the 740 invited guests at the church service and the reception that followed. "Everyone who knows Camilla personally knows she's a wonderful person, and they're an absolutely charming couple. She'll prove a great asset to the monarchy and the country."

Others were not so certain. It seemed unlikely that Britain's carnivorous tabloids — which have feasted off the Prince of Wales and Camilla in recent years like famished freeloaders at an all-you-can-eat buffet — would give the couple any more than the briefest of respites. Polls have indicated most Britons either approve of or are indifferent to the wedding, but a sizable majority does not want to see Camilla become queen.

"I think people are truly ready to give them a chance," said royal biographer Robert Lacey. "But of course it only takes one small mistake or act of extravagance to put them back in trouble."