Prince Andrew has given up the Duke of York title after pressure from King Charles. Photo / Getty Images
Not in a lifetime has there been such a downfall of a duke.
Prince Andrew, once a war hero heart-throb, has given up his Duke of York title, under growing public pressure and a King who has lost his patience.
A century after the last royal dukedoms were stripped from Britain’s declared enemies in World War I, Andrew has chosen to stop using his own.
It follows a conflagration of sex assault claims, a friendship with a human-trafficking paedophile and a relentless drip of Chinese spy allegations that became intolerable for palace and public.
An email from 2011 finally sealed his fate: five words Andrew sent to Jeffrey Epstein after the paedophile financier had already been jailed: “We’re in this together.”
The revelation this week blew apart his claims that he had cut ties with his friend: the tip of the iceberg in Duke of York-related scandals over the last few years, but the one that swept away any pretence he had been simply misunderstood.
Andrew has now relinquished the use of his title “voluntarily”.
Years after he claimed to be “too honourable” – in a Newsnight interview so disastrous he had to step down as a working royal – he has finally taken the chance to do the right thing.
His statement was tinged with his customary bullishness. The “continued accusations against me distract” from the work of the monarch, he said. “I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first.”
That he was permitted to explain it thus was a final concession from the King, who has been so reluctant to act rashly against his younger brother, or be seen to be cruel.
Even so, the situation had become intolerable.
What was at first a difficult sideshow for the monarchy had escalated into a poisonous crisis that threatened to undermine it.
Prince Andrew’s appearance outside Westminster Cathedral for the funeral of the Duchess of Kent illustrated the problem for all the world to see. Andrew, laughing and mingling, could not have seemed more out of step; Prince William studiously avoided him.
Optics are not everything in the royal family, but they are not nothing, either.
If there had been one scandal, Andrew would have survived it. In fact, he endured more than one for a long time.
He had the quiet support of his mother, and the most serious accusations against him have never been proven in the court of law.
But with each headline, and each poll putting him at the bottom of public opinion, so the pressure on King Charles grew.
First, palace sources looked back to what the late Queen Elizabeth had already done. The Duke had stepped back from public and working life, but remained a family member – as such, he could attend family events.
He “couldn’t be banned from church”, one source said not long ago, referring to the only venue where he was regularly seen in public with his family.
Then, the King and his aides made clear they wanted him to leave Royal Lodge, the large Windsor home that proved impossible to lure him out of. They lost that battle publicly, when Andrew produced his watertight contract with the Crown Estate.
While constitutional experts spelled out exactly how the Duke of York title could be removed, and even the title of Prince, the palace hoped it would still not be necessary to follow through.
The King, whose diagnosis and treatment for cancer has so affected his reign, has had other pressing priorities.
Days ago, he was still said to be “at a loss” about what to do to solve the “Prince Andrew problem”.
The Prince of Wales, without saying a word in public, had made clear he was more minded to take stronger action if it fell to him one day.
Now, finally, that will not be necessary: the King has done the honours. Or, more accurately, encouraged his brother to abandon the honours.
It will have caused no little upset within the family unit.
The King is said to be glad of the outcome, even if he did not relish its process. Prince William was consulted.
For the former Duke of York, this is the end of the royal road. Or should be.
In practical terms, this decision will have few major consequences. No Christmas walk at Sandringham, no Order of the Garter finery, and a low profile, if any profile at all, at so-called “family” occasions.
He has become accustomed to a quiet life in Windsor, riding and spending time with his ex-wife, two daughters and young grandchildren.
But it will hurt a prince who has enjoyed his status and privileges, and prides himself on having served his country.
His entry in the history books, as one of few dukes whose title disappeared from use in ignominy, will not make for happy reading.
Even the abdication of Edward VIII, so scandalous in its day and so consequential for British history, was not so distasteful by today’s standards, nor so protracted.
The King and his heir will hope the perennial question, “how do you solve a problem like Prince Andrew”, has been solved once and for all.
It has been decades in the making, and personally troubling for all. It is also a compromise: the title has not been “stripped”, it has been relinquished.
With his statement, finally, Prince Andrew has ticked one major issue off his brother’s to-do list. There is some small saving grace in that.
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