Timeline: Charles and Camilla's engagement

The engagement has sparked a legal row over whether it will be valid

It has been a rocky road for the relationship of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles and the announcement of their engagement has done little to smooth the path to wedded bliss.

10 February: Clarence House is forced to hastily announce the engagement of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles after London newspaper The Evening Standard broke the news in its early editions.

The wedding date was set as 8 April and was to be a civil ceremony in Windsor Castle followed by a blessing carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury in St George's Chapel.

Mrs Parker Bowles would become the Duchess of Cornwall, but upon the prince's succession to the throne she would not be queen, but would be known as princess consort.

14 February: Days after the announcement, Clarence House issues a statement rejecting claims that the civil marriage between the prince and Mrs Parker Bowles will not be legal.

The BBC's Panorama programme said that as the heir to the throne, new legislation would be needed to allow the prince and Mrs Parker Bowles to be married in a civil ceremony.

But a Clarence House spokesman said: "Legal advice was taken from four different sources and all agreed that it is legal for a member of the Royal Family to marry in a civil ceremony in England."

Also, calls for an emergency debate on the marriage at the Church of England's general synod are rejected.

The bans for the marriage are publicised next to the public's

17 February: The couple's plan to marry in a civil service in Windsor Castle is scuppered when it becomes clear licensing laws would mean the venue must be made "regularly available" for the next three years to anyone who wanted to marry there.

Instead the venue for the service is changed to Windsor Guildhall.

18 February: Any hopes of keeping the wedding private are wrecked when it is revealed members of the public have the legal right to sit, free of charge, in the public gallery at Windsor's Guildhall.

21 February: Sir Nicholas Lyell, a former attorney general, also suggests emergency legislation may be needed to clarify the legal position before the wedding.

He said he felt "disquiet" about the government's advice to the Queen.

"I don't think she has been given enough advice," he told the BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

Sir Nicholas said he believed the 1949 Marriage Act, which updated the law on civil marriages in England, excluded the Royal Family.

He said this would leave them subject to historic laws requiring marriage in church.

22 February: Despite the heir to the throne usually having two "supporters", Prince Charles will not have a best man, it is announced.

At his first wedding, to Diana Spencer, his brothers Prince Andrew and Prince Edward performed the roles.

23 February: The Queen will not attend the civil ceremony at the Guildhall, a move widely viewed as a snub to the couple.

According to a Buckingham Palace spokesman the decision had been made because the royal couple "wanted to keep the occasion low key".

4 April:Following the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April and the Vatican's announcement of his funeral on 8 April - the same day as the royal wedding - the prince decides to postpone his wedding by 24 hours.

He confirms that he will attend the funeral, with Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams - who are both invited to the wedding.