On Sunday, I mentioned that King Charles had spent the weekend at Sandringham. It was his first time staying in Norfolk since his brother Prince Andrew’s arrest at Wood Farm, on the Sandringham estate. The king’s courtiers emphasized in press briefings that Charles did not visit his brother, nor did they speak while Charles was in Norfolk. The photos of Charles in this post are from Sunday, where Charles walked to church (St. Mary Magdalene) with some young women. Queen Camilla didn’t join him. Charles can be seen shaking hands with Reverend Canon Paul Williams outside the church. Well, before the Sunday services, the reverend canon went to visit Andrew.
Exiled Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had a rare visitor to his temporary home at Sandringham at the weekend — the King’s domestic chaplain. The Reverend Canon Paul Williams went to see the former prince on Saturday, just hours before greeting His Majesty yesterday at a service at the Norfolk estate’s church.
The cleric was seen driving up a track to Wood Farm, Sandringham, where Andrew is staying after being evicted by the King from Royal Lodge, Windsor, last month. Mr Williams remained for around an hour before leaving.
Few people have visited the former Duke of York since his move to Sandringham, where he has been barred from riding. He rarely goes out and no friends or family called on his 66th birthday last month, the day Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
A witness said: “Andy’s having a pretty lonely existence as his only visitors are staff, police and delivery drivers from Waitrose. Even the King avoided Andy all weekend, despite staying two miles away and going out in his car nearby. Canon Williams drove down the track to Wood Farm for a chat. The next morning he and Charles were seen having a good old friendly natter before the church service at Sandringham.”
Queen Elizabeth II used to do this kind of thing with Andrew too, she would act like the Anglican church could or would absolve all of Andrew’s sins. QEII was always bringing Andrew to church with her in her later years. She memorably went to church with Andrew the day after Jeffrey Epstein died in custody too. Bonkers. Charles is clearly trying to lean into something similar, perhaps using a canon as a go-between and trying to make it look like Andrew is receiving spiritual counseling. You know what it actually looks like though? It looks like Charles and Andrew are using a man of god as a middleman to pass messages about a really depraved situation.
Meanwhile, Rob Shuter (I know, I know) claims that Andrew is currently seething with fury over the now-iconic Phil Noble image of Andrew, post-arrest, slumped in the back of a Range Rover. Andrew believes that Charles or the palace courtiers organized the photo in some way: “He thinks this was no accident. Andrew believes the King understands exactly how the press game works — and how powerful one image can be. For Andrew, it felt like a setup. He’s convinced someone high up knew he’d be there and made sure the press did too.” What’s crazy is that Reuters photographer Phil Noble has given several interviews explaining where he was and what he did to get that image. Some of it was luck, some of it was legwork, and none of it was done by arrangement with the palace.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of The Sun.
