It’s been a long time coming, but Prince Andrew has finally done the right thing. On Friday, he voluntarily relinquished all titles conferred on him, including his dukedom and status as Knight of the Garter.
With fresh revelations about his closeness to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and friendship with a Chinese ‘spymaster’, the scandal and sleaze surrounding this most tainted of royals had reached a critical mass.
His presence, even on the fringes of the House of Windsor, had become too much for the family to bear – and a growing danger to the stability of the monarchy.
Had he not given up the titles, King Charles would have had little option but to strip him of them. It is to the monarch’s credit that he achieved a negotiated compromise.
It must have been hard to see his younger brother in such public disgrace. But the family had to be distanced from Andrew’s appalling conduct and poor judgment.
As son of the previous monarch, he will continue to enjoy the status of prince, though not formally as HRH. He will also continue living in the Royal Lodge at Windsor, which he has leased from the Crown Estate until 2078.
If he really wanted to atone for his many sins, he would give that up, too, and move to some sequestered vale in the deep countryside – preferably abroad.
The latest scandal, reported in Friday’s Daily Mail, concerns his friendship with China’s alleged intelligence chief Cai Qi, who is said to have masterminded the Westminster espionage plot.
Prince Andrew has finally done the right thing by relinquishing all titles conferred on him as his very presence had become a growing danger to the stability of the monarchy
Andrew has long been trying to forge lucrative business links with Beijing, leading to accusations he was offering access to the highest levels of the British establishment for cash. That a senior member of the Royal Family and former naval officer should be so cavalier about our national security is truly shaming.
But shame clings to this prince like a rancid smell. His closeness to the infamous Epstein has been especially damaging.
And it gets worse with each new revelation. Last week’s Mail on Sunday published an email sent by Andrew to Epstein three months after the prince said he had ended their relationship.
He wrote: ‘We’re in this together … Let’s play some more!!!!’ Does that sound like someone who had severed all ties?
A day before the email, a picture had emerged of Andrew with his arm around then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was groomed and ‘passed around’ by Epstein to other men – including the prince.
He claims never to have met her and that the picture is fake, yet he paid her a reported £12 million to end a lawsuit.
In her biography, published posthumously this week, Ms Giuffre claimed: ‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright.’ How did he ever become embroiled in such a moral cesspit?
The Order of the Garter is this country’s highest expression of chivalry, something for which Andrew is hardly renowned. However, by surrendering the honour he has shown a little of that quality.
In Macbeth, after the traitorous Thane of Cawdor faces his execution with courage and repentance, Malcolm says of him: ‘Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it.’
Giving up the Garter rather than waiting to be stripped of it has allowed Andrew to preserve a similar shred of dignity – and spare his elder brother the added pain of having forcibly to cast him out.
