What's the difference between queen and 'Queen Consort'? Camilla's future title, explained

• Queen Elizabeth II revealed her "sincere wish" for Duchess Camilla to be known as "Queen Consort."
• "Queen Consort" is a fancy name for a reigning king's wife. But the husband of a queen isn't a king.
• Prince Charles and Camilla have steered clear of the title "Princess of Wales," because of Diana.
• Queen Camilla will be crowned with a lavish platinum-and-diamond tiara at Charles' coronation.

Americans left all that royal folderol about titles behind them in 1776.

Yet here we are, nearly 250 years later, agog about princes and dukes, queens and consorts, and the rest of the mystifying rules about royal style – and we're not talking about fashion. 

We have just gone through a period of debating what we're supposed to call Prince Harry and Prince Andrew now that they're no longer allowed to use "His Royal Highness" in front of their names after stepping down from senior royal roles.

Now we're plunged into a discussion about what to call Prince Charles' second wife, Camilla, after he succeeds his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as King Charles III sometime in the hopefully distant future.