Yet it is a known fact that Charles and Camilla dated and he was in love with her before he married Diana
We don't know that they were 'in love'.
I'm not splitting hairs. They definitely were good friends, and in the language of the royals Camilla was a 'confidant' of Charles, but he had several confidants in those years leading up to his marriage. The only reason we know about Camilla is because by the 90's Camilla was indeed the primary mistress and the easiest mark for Diana, so Diana went spinning the story regarding Camilla and Charles being 'in love'. A myth was born, and it's been one durable myth indeed.
they carved their initials in a tree if I remember (if that is wrong then I do apologize for my error)
No, what you are recalling is a famous picture of the two of them taken in front of a tree that had carvings. I'm pretty sure their initials were not among the carvings.
and he was [in love with Camilla] according to others what when she married elsewhere he was not happy.
Charles expressed regret and sadness (musing on a might-have-been) when he learned of Camilla's marriage.They had just had their fling and he was fresh in the memory of that idyll with her, but to claim that they were 'in love' is to pretty much disrespect Camilla's life at that time. She was in love with Parker-Bowles and had set her cap for him. Marriage to Parker-Bowles was likely one of her happiest days. I do not believe Diana's spin that Camilla and Charles were 'in love' from way back.
And then after the death of Diana they, Charles and Camilla married even though they waited a while.
Yes, they did that, but after their relationship entered phase 2 in the late 80's, when the Wales marriage was no more a functioning marriage. I believe what Charles says in this regard (we have no testimony stating that Charles has trouble with the truth, Diana we have in plenty in that regard).
I have nothing against Charles or Camilla yet I do believe that they were destined to be together
I don't believe that for a moment. Camilla's 'destiny' was to be the country wife of Parker-Bowles. She was content. Clearly Camilla and Charles were great good friends but I don't think anything that happened beyond friendship was ever destined. That's become the myth, and maybe it is a necessary myth that makes the 'bitter pill' of a failed Wales marriage go down easier. But this I maintain, from all my (unfortunate
) reading on this couple: Charles was Diana's to lose, she held all the cards, and still she managed to throw away her advantages. How to explain that? Maybe the truth is a bit hard to bear? Rather make it about a destined 'true love' that could not be denied rather than a silly young woman too immature to get-a-grip on herself.
and that the royal family did not want Camilla for his wife at first, even after the death of Diana.....
Camilla and Charles were a fling in the early 70's. No mention of marriage. Camilla was dating Parker-Bowles and hell-bent in that direction. And for after Diana's death, I don't know. Maybe you know more about that.
I think honestly there is something to the story that Charles loved Camilla before, during and after Diana......it happens in life to many other people also and people change and grow in different directions as they get older.
That's Diana's spin. How else to explain her own failure at the marriage? This gorgeous woman whom the public adored as 'the all good Diana'? It had to be a condition beyond her control, an evil sorceress, and so it was Diana lit upon the convenience of Camilla.
I will always maintain that Camilla and Charles 'fell in love' during phase 2 of their relationship that began in the late 80's, or at least Charles did. Camilla maybe took more time, we'll never know really, though without question they are a mutually loving couple now. I think Charles is grateful to Camilla to a depth we can only imagine. Camilla really did save him. In effect, Diana threw them together. Diana manifested her worst fear perhaps.
I see Diana as an insecure young woman not knowing who she was with no self-confidence or self-esteem and Charles as more worldly and mature and both had very different interests and views of life...
Yes and no. Diana was a player, Charles actually wasn't. That's the irony. It's staring everyone in the face but none can see the reality: Charles was the one-woman man willing to live a domestic life with wife (Diana), children, gardens, and entertaining. It was Diana who had the itchy feet, unable to focus, seeing no value in anything her recently acquired husband had to offer. (One can only guess at the nightmare Charles found himself confronting 'until death').
It's true, I have enormous sympathy for Charles, far less for Diana who I see as too often purposefully cruel in her self-absorption. I give her very little slack.
even though no one calls this an arranged marriage from all that I have read over the decades, Charles was pressured into marrying by the family and the royal family thought Diana fit the bill for them......they made a huge mistake in that as we have all seen and read.
Seen from Charles' perspective, I am reminded of a quote from the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral': "Tom: Oh, I don't know, Charlie. Unlike you, I never expected 'the thunderbolt.' I always just hoped that, that I'd meet some nice friendly girl, like the look of her, hope the look of me didn't make her physically sick, then pop the question and, um, settle down and be happy. It worked for my parents. Well, apart from the divorce and all that." It was likely like that for Charles: assumed that a girl from his class would understand what was afoot, and he was right. Diana did know what was afoot. She was one of the girls in the pool of eligible ladies around Charles. She made all the rest up when her wild behavior as the Princess of Wales was being outed. JMO.