It’s incredibly funny to watch King Charles try to thread this needle with his late mother’s memory: Queen Elizabeth II was the greatest monarch ever and everything she said and did is above reproach… AND the late queen was petty, negligent, short-sighted and she’s to blame for pretty much every problem plaguing Charles. You can’t have it both ways – either QEII’s words are the royal gospel or she made tons of horrible decisions which left the monarchy in terrible shape long-term. Which is it? All of this brings me to Roya Nikkhah’s new piece in the Times, where “insiders” and “sources” are basically complaining about how QEII should have taken care of this Prince Andrew situation during her reign, and why oh why did they leave this issue on the shoulders of Charles the Ditherer? Some highlights:
A stain on the Carolean era: Whichever way the saga of Andrew ends — and the end does not yet appear to be in sight — it has indelibly stained the Carolean era, a reign that has already been buffeted by the King’s cancer, for which he is still receiving weekly treatment. A friend of the monarch said: “He won’t be looking at it through the lens of ‘this is my brother’. He’ll be looking at it through the lens of ‘this is getting in the way of the royal family’s duty to serve the country and distracting from the public work’ — and that’s not where he wants the focus to be.”
The inherited problem: Charles and his aides have been firefighting for weeks, attempting to digest each new, tawdry revelation about Andrew that emerges to do with his links to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein…But there is a growing feeling that too little is being done too late, and the Palace is playing catch-up because of mis-steps committed during the last reign. After his BBC Newsnight interview, Andrew was forced by Queen Elizabeth, with the support of Charles and Prince William, to step back from public life in the vain hope the scandal would fade. In February 2022, when Andrew agreed a multimillion-pound settlement with Giuffre, part-funded by his mother and Charles and admitting no liability, the late Queen enforced further punishment, removing his HRH styling, military titles and patronages. But she could not bring herself to fully strip him of his titles, or suggest that alternative accommodation might be more appropriate in the circumstances. He remained her weak spot, and Charles is now paying the price.
QEII has a lot to answer for!! A source who knows the royal family said: “It seems to me that Queen Elizabeth has quite a lot to answer for. It’s as if she left an unexploded bomb for Charles. The thing about the Queen was that everyone always said she was so dutiful, and she was — but this was a terrible dereliction of duty. She indulged Andrew all the time and always avoided confrontation.”
QEII the ostrich: Another royal source, who knew the late Queen well, said: “It wasn’t just Andrew — it was all the family troubles. She just didn’t want to engage. She was like an ostrich with her head in the sand. But I don’t think any of the family knew the full extent of what would come out.”
The advanced talks with Andrew: Talks between Andrew and courtiers, thought to be led by the King’s principal private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, on the issue of where else he might live — and who would fund a move — are said to be continuing. The prince has so far dug in his heels and shows no imminent signs of moving. This is despite mounting pressure prompted by revelations last week in The Times that he pays the Crown Estate a “peppercorn rent” for the sprawling mansion.
Charles must stop dithering and confront Andrew directly: The source said: “Charles has to say to his face, ‘There’s no choice here, you must now leave Royal Lodge. Whatever the lease says. You say you always put your family and country first. Prove it. This is doing real damage to the monarchy. You’ve got to move.’ I think that would do a lot to assuage public anger.” Another royal source said: “The public are angry at Andrew, angry that he’s still in that house and angry at the disdain in that statement. Something else [beyond the dukedom] has to go.”
What is Camilla doing? Queen Camilla has so far kept a low profile on the matter, choosing to support her husband privately as he navigates the Andrew fallout. The Palace will not say whether Camilla — who, like the Duchess of Edinburgh, is a longstanding campaigner on raising awareness of sexual abuse — has read Giuffre’s book or expressed an interest in its contents, published posthumously. A friend of Camilla’s said: “Knowing her, she probably will. Set against the Queen and the Duchess of Edinburgh’s personal agenda, it is a very difficult backdrop to try and promote the issues they care about when they’ve got someone so close to home caught up in it.”
Endless scandal: Another former courtier says of the endless scandal: “If a story lasts more than nine days, you’re toast. It’s been 15 years now.” A friend of the King said: “The King has one of the best antenna for judging public opinion and he is keeping a very close eye on the mood on this matter. There is a genuine sense that he feels he has taken every step available and they have pulled all the decisive levers they can. If it isn’t enough, because the public outrage is still high, they will look again. But it is not an institution that is prone to knee-jerk reactions.”
“The King has one of the best antenna for judging public opinion” – no he doesn’t??? LMAO. Charles married Camilla, for God’s sake. Charles doesn’t have a feel for public opinion, but he believes that he can manipulate public opinion to get his desired result. Andrew Lownie – who wrote the book on the Yorks, published this past summer – pointed out that the public is way ahead of the monarchy and the government on the Andrew situation. There’s HUGE public support for formally stripping Andrew of all of his titles and forcing him out of Royal Lodge and launching a criminal inquiry into him. Charles and the Starmer government look out of touch for attempting to slow-walk these half-measure punishments.
As for all of the stuff about blaming QEII… lol. Charles really is his mother’s biggest opp, and always has been. Charles is disrespecting the dead queen! Punishing Andrew is a slap in the dead queen’s face! Sorry, do we only reserve that kind of hyperbole when it’s about the Sussexes? The thing that makes it even funnier is that Charles is actually right, QEII should have punished Andrew during her reign and yes, this was always going to explode during Charles’s reign. But QEII didn’t force Charles to put Andrew front-and-center on the Christmas walk and Easter walks. QEII didn’t force Charles to dither and slow-walk the Andrew situation for three years.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar.
