King Charles has already retired to Scotland for the rest of the summer, although this will probably be one of the shortest summer holidays of his reign. He’s due back in Windsor mid-September to host Donald Trump’s state visit. When Charles makes his way to Balmoral, he’ll be staying at Birkhall, his long-time home/mansion on the Balmoral estate. It’s more than likely that Prince Andrew is already in residence at Balmoral’s main house, or Andrew will be there shortly. It’s funny to think that Andrew is going hunting in Scotland while all of the papers are covering every lurid story from Andrew Lownie’s book, Entitled, about the Yorks. But even though Charles, Andrew and the rest of the family are technically on their summer holiday, the palace machinery churns away. Which is how the Telegraph put together a lengthy piece about “the Andrew problem” and what Charles could do and should do. There’s also a lot in this piece about what eventual King William will do to his uncle. Some highlights:
The Andrew Question: Hopes that the King and his senior courtiers would make progress on the “Prince Andrew question” during his early reign have not come to pass, with priorities shifting rapidly after the King was diagnosed with cancer. “Something,” says one source, “still needs to be done.” Attempts “for the King and his brother to resolve things” have not gone far enough, in the view of many Palace insiders. But, others acknowledge, there is only so much the King can sensibly do. Prince Andrew has his own, longstanding lease agreement with the Crown Estate for his home, and as long as he can maintain it – at an estimated cost of millions of pounds – he cannot be evicted.
Andrew still attends “family events”: He has finally bowed out of all but a few remaining public appearances, keeping largely out of the way during Garter Day this year. The status quo falls into a pattern set by the late Queen Elizabeth II, in which Prince Andrew is permitted to attend “family occasions” only. In recent years that has meant he and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, joining the family for the Sandringham Christmas walk and at St George’s Chapel for Easter Sunday. “[Andrew] can’t be banned from Church,” says one Palace source, regretfully. Almost all in Palace circles now admit that it cannot continue indefinitely.
Eventual King William is already making plans: Realistically, some in Palace circles concede, the “Prince Andrew question” will now fall to a future King William to solve once and for all. Christopher Wilson, a royal historian and biographer, believes that under Prince William the policy of Elizabeth II to avoid, whenever possible, acknowledging public criticism of the Royal family will come to an end. He says: “I think to a large extent Charles has adhered to that as a safe policy – the moment you start tearing the family apart, where does it stop?… With William it will be a different approach – he has hard-nosed ideas about how the Royal family needs to appear in the frenzied social media world we now inhabit, and I think will be ruthless.”
William will find a way to ban Andrew from family events: If Prince Andrew was warmly invited to family events by Queen Elizabeth II, and patiently so under King Charles, he may find there are fewer – if any – moments where he is on camera in the future. The mechanisms open to a future King William to go further are more extensive than is generally reported. He has the option to decline to invite his uncle to his future Coronation. It would be headline news, but there is a precedent: the Duke of Windsor was excluded from both George VI and Elizabeth II’s in the rather different circumstances of living in exile after abdication. A king can, in certain circumstances, remove the Order of the Garter, which is in the monarch’s personal gift.
Removing Andrew’s ducal title: Parliament has greater powers – it can remove the Dukedom via legislation. A private members’ bill to “give the Monarch powers to remove titles”, mooted in 2022 after the people of York argued they did not want to be associated with the Duke, fell flat. But a government bill to do the same job would doubtless fare much better. Should another attempt, with the heft of the government behind it, be more successful, Prince Andrew’s name could eventually be struck off the Roll of the Peerage where it is currently listed under “York”.
Prince Louis won’t become the Duke of York: In any case, the disgrace now associated with Prince Andrew makes it all but certain that his Dukedom will fall into abeyance when he dies. Upon his death, the title the Duke of York will revert to the Crown. It would customarily be bestowed on the monarch’s second son, where the time is right. But a grown-up Prince Louis is far more likely to become Duke of Edinburgh.
They want to take away his HRH too: But, says a source, such a “big deal” would best happen through legislation. “If there was a serious move to take [a title] away, particularly at that level, you do it through both houses [of Parliament],” they added. None of this, one source emphasises, can be done at the whim of a king; the government is required to take action. But whether it is King Charles acting out of necessity in the near future or his son deciding to lance the boil in years to come, the combined brains of Buckingham Palace and Downing Street could find a way. “Is it likely at this point?” one source says. “No. But is it possible? Yes.”
Christopher Wilson on the fragile monarchy: One way for this to come to a head now, suggests Wilson, would be if MPs raise questions about Prince Andrew’s time as a trade ambassador, in the context of examining potential misuse of public funds. Any serious findings would mean “Charles could act in the best interests of preserving the monarchy…The Royal family is in a fragile state,” he adds. “Arguably in worse shape than during the Abdication when at least the problem got solved fast. Here we have seen a terrible shredding process going on, which downgrades our principal institution and sooner or later will render it an international laughing-stock unless something is done, quickly.”
I have mixed feelings about “here are all of the things William plans to do to Andrew” – Charles could push this issue and spend some of his political capital, and the Andrew problem has festered during Charles’s reign. But I guess people just accept that Charles isn’t going to do sh-t, so Wrathful Peg will do what needs to be done. All of this is just a reminder… while Andrew Lownie’s book seems to be mostly recycled and reheated old gossip, the book still serves as a reminder that Andrew has been an unchecked catastrophe for decades, and yes, something should be done.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
