Princes have but their titles for their glories – William Shakespeare
It’s official: Andrew Windsor has now been added to the list of disgraced English royals. King Charles III, his older brother, recently stripped Andrew of his title and evicted him from his home at Windsor Palace for his relationship with convicted sex-trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey C. Epstein, and for the perceived lack of remorse on the part of the Royal Formerly Known as Prince Andrew.
This latest tempest-in-a-very-large-teapot further darkens the reputation of “Randy Andy,” a nickname that reflects Andrew’s long-established image as a party-hearty toff with friends as questionable as his morals (or lack of them). His tendency for excess – a tendency that may well have culminated in criminal behavior – has been chronicled by The Guardian.
In a 2019 Newsnight Interview, Andrew was questioned about Virginia Giuffre, with whom he was photographed in 2014 on an island owned by Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre was 17 at the time. Andrew claims to remember nothing whatsoever:
Do you buy it? Nah. Me neither. Such memory “lapses” are becoming harder to believe with every passing year. Royal status is no longer a Get Out of Gaol Free card.
Andrew joins such other morally-destitute figures as Edward, Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII. History buffs and viewers of the now sadly under-funded PBS will remember how, in l936, Eddy 8 abdicated so he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. That ruffled a lot of feathers at the time, but what still rankles today is Edward’s friendship with Hitler and his pro-German attitudes – which, some historians believe, led to active collaboration with the Nazis: What’s next for “Randy Andy?”
What Becomes A Disgraced Ex-Prince Most?
Andrew no longer possesses royal titles and patronages and will now be referred to as “Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.”
He’ll soon be in the market for housing. According to The Guardian, he’s to clear out of the Royal Lodge, the 30-room Windsor residence he’s lived in since 2003.
In many minds, Andrew’s a moocher who’s not pulling the not-exactly exorbitant weight of royal duties. The Lodge has been a bone of contention for years. Andrew had a 75-year lease and paid £250 a week (a mere £8.3 per room – nice rent if you can get it). When reports emerged that the Crown Estate couldn’t turf Andrew out unless he defaulted on upkeep costs, it’s rumored that the King took matters into his own hands. CBS News
BBC News noted the palace’s decision comes “after years of strained family negotiations and reputational damage that could no longer be ignored.”
Is Tesco Hiring?
What will Andy do for the readys now he’s off the public payroll? US reports that “he will receive an appropriate private provision because he is the brother of King Charles III.” How much that’ll be hasn’t been made public, but one doubts that Andrew will starve.
How his two daughters, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, will deal with the emotional and financial fallout is an open question.
“Shattered Britain”
England’s going through a rough patch. Andy’s scandals throw unwelcome light on the monarchy (and the cost of its upkeep) in a nation beset with economic worries:
“Seven in ten Britons say that the country is on the wrong track and many are starting to conclude that the problems with our country lie not in one party or political leader, but with the system itself.”
In other words, princes with cheap housing and a history of sexual misadventure are not exceedingly popular these days.
“The Fault, dear Brutus…”
Shakespeare’s plays are rife with characters whose troubled psyches, all-consuming ambitions, and/or unquenchable thirst for power ultimately lead them to destruction. When Sir John Falstaff is humiliated by Prince Hal, the audience weeps. Andrew’s fate – cast out by his own brother in an attempt to cleanse the monarchy from guilt by association – is far more tawdry than tragic. But the lesson is the same:
…my high-blown pride
At length broke under me, and now has left me
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye:
I feel my heart new opened. O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favours!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
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