The big Prince Andrew “news” breaking last night is that Windsor Castle removed Andrew’s banner – a banner with his coat of arms – from the display in St. George’s Chapel. The removal of a royal banner is apparently “typically only removed in cases of high treason or rebellions against the Crown.” This is very similar to Andrew “relinquishing” his honors, like Order of the Garter. Royalists insist that these demotions mean something huge because Andrew loves this kind of flummery. When really, the Windsors decided to remove a banner rather than remove a sexual predator.
Speaking of, after days of mainstream political outcry about Andrew, everything is now being quietly taken care of behind the scenes. The Starmer government has shut down a debate about Andrew, his finances, his Royal Lodge lease and his crimes. Hilariously, these are not the only machinations from Buckingham Palace. The palace has decided to throw Queen Elizabeth II right under the bus. Blame Andrew on QEII, she was the one who indulged him! I mean, they’re not wrong?? From Jan Moir’s Mail column:
Is the late Queen Elizabeth to blame for the horror of Prince Andrew? Did she spoil him so much that he grew up convinced of his own specialness, marinated in arrogance, unable to navigate his cushioned world of privilege with even a shred of humility, decency or common sense? Many mothers have blind spots when it comes to their favourite sons, sparing the rod and spoiling the child to such an extent that they unwittingly raise a monster.
Did that happen here? I’m only asking because there must be some explanation for Prince Andrew’s unique loathsomeness; some way of groping through his thicket of thick, his unremitting, clotted arrogance to understand his character and motivation. Given his elevated position in society, Andrew could have become friends with anyone, but he chose to move in a dark world of seedy billionaires, sex offenders, Chinese spies, wicked paedophiles, she-pimps and God knows who else.
Down in the murk at this unsavoury end of an immoral universe his playmates were powerful, clever and wily people who encouraged this pompous dolt to believe he was powerful and clever, too. The reality is that he was only ever a useful idiot to them; a man who was used and abused – and who went on to use and abuse others for his own pleasure.
I am legally obligated at this point to say that Prince Andrew denies the allegations that Virginia Giuffre made against him in her posthumous autobiography and elsewhere. Yet the grand old Duke of York, as we now don’t know him, has demonstrably lied and lied about so many things that who could possibly believe him now? Perhaps not even his own mother.
Survey after survey reveals that people want Andrew officially stripped of his titles by Parliament and booted out of his grace-and-favour Royal Lodge, along with his ridiculous Freebiana of a wife. Day by day Andrew is slipping away from public view, sunk beneath the weight of his disgrace, now facing a police investigation and possible further humiliation.
Yet how did we get here? Even by the blackest standards of the monarchy’s black history, while trotting out on the black meadows of royal blackness, do black sheep come any blacker than Andrew?
They may have their faults, but neither his two brothers nor his sister come anywhere close to Prince Andrew on the royal ghastly-o-meter. Searching for his good qualities is like panning for gold in a sewer – try as you might, you are only ever going to end up with dung in your sieve. Surely part of the problem must be that no matter what he did, Queen Elizabeth could see no wrong in her beloved Andrew. Most mothers have a favourite son, and he was undoubtedly hers – then, now and forevermore.
Moir keeps going and going, but you get the idea. While I don’t think QEII is solely responsible for Andrew’s depravity, I absolutely blame her for indulging him, protecting him and covering up his crimes. QEII and her courtiers used every tool at their disposal to ensure that mummy’s favorite never had to face consequences or even a check on his behavior. This is all because Andrew never actually broke the Windsor omerta, he didn’t break any of the rules which really matter to them. Which should be a larger conversation too: why weren’t Andrew’s crimes a bigger deal within the institution and within his family?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images and Instar.
