Prince Andrew and the future of the monarchy

Final month, the royal household introduced that Prince Andrew was to have his title and honours eliminated. Robert Hazell explains what has modified, the way it was performed, what would possibly nonetheless occur, and what this might imply for the monarchy as an entire.

On 17 October Buckingham Palace issued an announcement wherein Prince Andrew introduced that he would now not use his titles or the honours which had been conferred upon him. There adopted calls within the media for his shame to go additional: that he be formally stripped of his titles; evicted from Royal Lodge, his house in Windsor Nice Park; lose his standing as a Counsellor of State; and be faraway from the road of succession. 

In response to mounting public strain, two weeks later the Palace issued an extra assertion which stated:

His Majesty has as we speak initiated a proper course of to take away the Fashion, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew will now be referred to as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to this point, supplied him with authorized safety to proceed in residence. Formal discover has now been served to give up the lease and he’ll transfer to various personal lodging. These censures are deemed obligatory, however the truth that he continues to disclaim the allegations towards him. 

Their Majesties want to clarify that their ideas and utmost sympathies have been, and can stay with, the victims and survivors of any and all types of abuse.

The Palace and the federal government will each hope that they’ll now draw a line below the entire affair. However can Andrew be stripped of all his titles with out laws?  What can be required to take away him as a Counsellor of State, and from the road of succession?  And what are the broader penalties for the monarchy, its funding, and its standing in public opinion?

Stripping Prince Andrew of his peerage titles

Prince Andrew has three peerage titles, as Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh. Peerages, though granted below the royal prerogative, can solely be eliminated by laws. That was confirmed by Nick Thomas-Symonds, Cupboard Workplace Minister for the Structure, when he lately said: ‘The Sovereign could change the entitlement to the titles and types equivalent to “Prince” and “Royal Highness” below the Royal Prerogative. An Act of Parliament is required to take away a peerage as soon as conferred’. The precedent is the Titles Deprivation Act 1917, which led to 3 German descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who have been officers within the German military in the course of the First World Warfare being stripped of their British titles.  

Herbert Asquith and his successor as Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, had each been reluctant to legislate, however ultimately bowed to public opinion. The Starmer authorities might be equally eager to keep away from laws. It has different, extra essential legislative priorities; and the laws can be open to hostile modification (for instance, to deprive Lord (Peter) Mandelson of his peerage, due to his affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein; or to deprive Prince Harry of his titles). To fend off calls for for laws, the response has been for the King to situation a Royal Warrant instructing the Lord Chancellor, David Lammy, to take away Andrew from the Roll of the Peerage. This was recorded in The Gazette:

THE KING has been happy by Warrant below His Royal Signal Guide dated 30 October 2025 to direct His Secretary of State to trigger the Duke of York to be faraway from the Roll of the Peerage with speedy impact.

Elimination from the roll isn’t the identical as eradicating the peerage, as a result of a peerage can solely be eliminated by laws.  Its impact merely signifies that Andrew will now not be referred to by his peerage title in official paperwork. He can nonetheless be known as the Duke of York in Debrett’s Peerage, Who’s Who and any media which care to take action, and they won’t be flawed. The Duke of Argyll isn’t on the Roll of the Peerage, however he’s nonetheless the Duke of Argyll.

There stays a puzzle, and an issue. First, the puzzle: the 2004 Royal Warrant establishing the Roll of the Peerage accommodates no specific energy to take away folks from it. There’s provision in Article 6 for friends to use to be faraway from the Roll; however no provision for folks unilaterally to be eliminated. The issue is the dearth of due course of. It appears unlikely that Andrew will need to problem his removing; nevertheless it units an uncomfortable precedent. If the King can take away somebody from the roll by govt fiat, any peer who’s at present the goal of an aggressive media marketing campaign might undergo an analogous destiny.

Stripping Prince Andrew of his type and honours

Andrew was a additionally a Knight of the Garter, and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order; a Prince, and His Royal Highness. The Garter and RVO are each within the private present of the Sovereign, so removing of Andrew’s knighthoods wouldn’t have to comply with a advice from the Honours Forfeiture Committee, which offers with Honours awarded on ministerial recommendation. It could merely have to comply with the process set out within the statutes of the 2 Orders. Andrew’s banner as a Knight of the Garter has already been taken down from St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Once more, there’s a precedent from the First World Warfare: in 1915 King George V struck the names of seven European royals from the roll of Knights of the Garter, together with Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. 

King George V additionally set the foundations which made Andrew a Prince and His Royal Highness, in Letters Patent issued in 1917.  These supplied that the kids of the Sovereign ‘shall have … the type title or attribute of Royal Highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess’. Such types and titles can be eliminated by Letters Patent. This occurred in 1937, when King George VI issued Letters Patent declaring that the Duchess of Windsor wouldn’t be Her Royal Highness; and in 1996, when related Letters Patent declared that if a Prince acquired divorced, then his former spouse (in that case, Diana, Princess of Wales) would stop to be HRH following the divorce. In Andrew’s case, Letters Patent have been issued this week declaring:

THE KING has been happy by Letters Patent below the Nice Seal of the Realm dated 3 November 2025 to declare that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor shall now not be entitled to carry and benefit from the type, title or attribute of “Royal Highness” and the titular dignity of “Prince”.

Eradicating Prince Andrew as a Counsellor of State, and from the road of succession

The Palace and the federal government will each hope that no additional debasement is required; not least as a result of any additional steps would definitely require laws. That features eradicating Andrew as one of many Counsellors of State: individuals who deputise for the monarch when he’s absent overseas, or briefly incapacitated (for instance, by severe sickness). Two need to be appointed from an inventory prescribed by the Regency Act 1937, specifically the monarch’s partner and the subsequent 4 adults in line of succession: at present Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince Harry, Andrew and Princess Beatrice. As a result of the final three weren’t working royals, the Counsellors of State Act 2022 added Prince Edward and Princess Anne to the checklist. In consequence there isn’t a want for Andrew ever to be known as upon to function a Counsellor of State; however it might require laws formally to take away him from the checklist.

Laws to take away Andrew from the road of succession can be tougher nonetheless, as a result of below a conference enshrined within the preamble to the Statute of Westminster 1931 this might require the consent of each different Commonwealth realm (the 14 different states world wide the place King Charles can be head of state). The final time this occurred was when the regulation of succession was modified to introduce gender equality; it took 18 months of protracted negotiations from the announcement of the change on the Commonwealth Heads of Authorities assembly in Perth in 2011 to the profitable passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. The federal government won’t need to repeat that train; nor will the realms.

Eradicating Andrew from Royal Lodge

Andrew had a 75-year lease from the Crown Property on Royal Lodge, a big home in Windsor Nice Park. The Occasions revealed the lease on 21 October, revealing that he paid £1 million for the lease, plus a minimal of £7.5 million in refurbishments; in return for which he paid a nominal lease.

The Crown Property is a statutory company working below the Crown Property Act 1961 (as amended in 2025), and manages an enormous property portfolio.  The 9 Commissioners are property specialists who function independently of presidency and the Crown. Legally they might not merely terminate Andrew’s lease; the Palace assertion that ‘formal discover has now been served to give up the lease’ means that he yielded to mounting strain to relinquish the lease voluntarily.

The impression on royal funds

Each the Palace and the federal government might be eager to shut the story down, and transfer on. In parliament backbench Labour MP Rachael Maskell’s proposed invoice to take away Andrew’s titles hangs within the air, however isn’t going to occur until adopted by the federal government. One other unwelcome hangover from the entire affair is renewed scrutiny of the royal funds, within the 12 months earlier than the sovereign grant is up for its quinquennial assessment. The Commons Public Accounts Committee could maintain a single proof session simply on Prince Andrew’s funds, or launch a wider inquiry.

It could be exhausting to keep away from the inquiry spreading extra extensively. Having launched the lease on Royal Lodge, the Crown Property could discover it troublesome to refuse to reveal the leases on different properties occupied by the royal household. And it could be exhausting for the Palace to dispel the mysteries surrounding Andrew’s sources of earnings with out being extra clear concerning the royal funds extra usually: particularly of the Duchy of Lancaster, which final 12 months supplied King Charles with £27 million of his earnings. The Palace web site says:

The Duchy of Lancaster is a portfolio of land, property and property held in belief for the Sovereign … Its predominant objective is to offer an unbiased supply of earnings, and is used primarily to pay for official expenditure not met by the Sovereign Grant (primarily to fulfill bills incurred by different members of the Royal Household).

Notice the ultimate phrases in brackets. Within the days of the Civil Checklist, the annuities acquired by different members of the royal household have been revealed; because the Sovereign Grant Act 2011, that now not occurs. The Duchy of Lancaster’s annual report and accounts provides a lot of element concerning the Duchy’s earnings, however none about its expenditure. The Liberal Democrat chief, Ed Davey, has known as for a choose committee inquiry, and Baroness (Margaret) Hodge of Barking, former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has known as for higher transparency concerning the royal funds. If the Public Accounts Committee decides to launch a wider inquiry, the funds to different members of the royal household funded by the Duchy of Lancaster can be a pure place to begin.

The impression on the monarchy

The Palace’s actions to date are a response not merely to strain from the media (and social media), but additionally to the opinion polls. 91% of the general public have been reported by YouGov in October to have a damaging opinion of Prince Andrew, and Ipsos reported that 51% of Britons thought there needs to be an Act of Parliament formally to take away his titles. On the King’s dealing with of the matter, the YouGov ballot confirmed 40% saying he had managed the problem properly, however 32% saying he had performed so badly.

Extra comforting for the Palace would be the commonplace polling questions on attitudes to the King, and the monarchy extra usually. YouGov reported in October that 62% of the general public had a optimistic view of King Charles, in comparison with 59% in August; whereas 29% see the King in a damaging gentle. A majority of Britons (57%) really feel the monarchy general is sweet for Britain, and so they see the royal household pretty much as good worth for cash by 50% to 33%.

On the important thing query of monarchy versus republic, 62% of the general public imagine Britain ought to proceed to have a monarchy, in comparison with 25% who really feel we must always have an elected head of state as a substitute. Prince Andrew could have induced a small blip in help for the monarchy, however folks can clearly distinguish their damaging emotions about one unhealthy actor (-91%), whereas retaining a optimistic angle to the establishment as an entire. 

In regards to the writer

Professor Robert Hazell was the founder and first Director of the Structure Unit. He’s the co-editor of The Function of Monarchy in Fashionable Democracy.