In light of the news of King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis, you might be wondering what happens if his wife, Queen Camilla, were to outlive him—and what her title would be.
Well, a similar situation occurred when Queen Elizabeth II’s father, King George VI, passed away in 1952, widowing his wife, Queen Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon. When Queen Elizabeth II took the throne, her mother took on the title queen mother, to avoid any confusion with her daughter the monarch. But if Queen Camilla outlives her husband, something different would happen.
Camilla would likely take on the title queen dowager, defined quite simply by Merriam-Webster as: “the widow of a king.” All widows of kings are technically queen dowagers, but some use the title queen mother if they are birth mothers to the reigning heir. (Queen Camilla, of course, is not. Future king Prince William’s mother was the late Princess Diana.)
If King Charles passes away, his eldest son, William, ascends to the throne. The Prince of Wales is currently first in the line of British succession, followed by his eldest son, 10-year-old Prince George. And if Prince William becomes monarch of the United Kingdom, his wife, Princess Catherine, takes on the title of queen.
As noted by Town & Country, the last time the queen dowager title was used was when Queen Adelaide was widowed by her husband, King William IV, in 1837. Adelaide was queen dowager until her death in 1849. Because she and William never had any children, William’s niece took hold of the throne as Queen Victoria.
Currently, Camilla’s title is queen consort—the wife of a reigning king—although the consort was subtly removed on the royal family’s website a few weeks before she was coronated alongside Charles in May 2023.
