Will Prince Andrew also have to relinquish his last title, the Duke of York? After it became known that he had lost his royal and military titles, politicians in York launched a campaign to take the duchy from him. Including a special hashtag on social media: #notinYorksname.
Last Thursday, Queen Elizabeth stripped her third child and second son Andrew (61) of his titles. It’s the ultimate attempt to distance the British monarchy from the damaging abuse case Andrew has been embroiled for years. This week, a US judge ruled that a civil lawsuit between Andrew and Virginia Giuffre, accusing him of repeated sexual abuse, must go ahead.
It’s hard to imagine now, but the young Prince Andrew, in full Andrew Albert Christian Edward, was a popular member of the royal family in the United Kingdom. And even ran – more or less – in line, although that period lasted many times shorter than the years in which he was discredited. Andrew’s retreat as a valued part of The Firm has lasted for decades.
Spoiled child
As a second son, Andrew enjoys much more freedom from the start than his older brother and Crown Prince Charles. Queen Elizabeth predicts a few weeks after his birth in a letter to a niece that “he is sure to be spoiled by all of us”. But without such a clearly defined life path as his brother, Andrew has less to hold on to and it is difficult to find a meaningful interpretation of the princely existence. At birth, Andrew is second in line to the throne, but over the years drops to number nine, displaced by Prince Charles’ children and grandchildren.
After high school, attending the same boarding school in Scotland as father Philip and brother Charles, Andrew joins the Royal Navy in 1979. He flies as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War in 1982, even though Elizabeth is against it. Years after the conflict over the Falkland Islands, Andrew is still used here as a diplomatic tool: in 1994 he became the first member of the royal family to visit Argentina again, which was seen as a sign of normalizing relations between the UK and Argentina.
In 1986 Andrew married Sarah Ferguson, daughter of his father’s polo friend. The broadcast of their wedding attracts hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, The New York Times writes about “Fergie Fever” and expresses the expectation that the non-noble Ferguson will provide fresh energy within the royal family. That is different. They have two daughters, but their marriage is short-lived. Photos of affairs find their way to the tabloid press and in 1992 they split up.
Special Ambassador
After the divorce, Andrew manifests himself more and more as a kind of anti-Charles. He leads a jet-set life, helped by his appointment as ‘Special Trade Ambassador’ to the United Kingdom since 2001, liaising with international businessmen, ministers and heads of state on behalf of the UK. There are also controversial figures among them.
Andrew brokers an arms deal with Yemen and strengthens ties with Saudi Arabia on behalf of the UK. “In the Middle East, rulers love meeting princes. It opens doors that would otherwise remain closed,” said a spokesperson for Andrew about this in return for The Guardian in 2011. „This role has become his way of life, being raison d’etre.”
Those business trips, hundreds over the years, also often revolve around luxury golf resorts, ski courses and island paradises. The British tabloids regularly publish photos of Andrew with yet another scantily clad woman by his side. Over the years, they come up with all kinds of nicknames for him: Air miles Andy, Randy Andy (horny Andy), Party Prince, Playboy Prince.
Millionaire and hustler Jeffrey Epstein and his right-hand man Ghislaine Maxwell are also in the picture during this period. According to British media, they see each other on an “infrequent basis”. They met in 1999 and in the following years they spent holidays together, at the royal estate in Scotland but also in Florida and Thailand. Epstein and Maxwell come to a big party at Windsor Castle in 2000 to celebrate Andrew’s 40th birthday.
According to Virginia Giuffre, at that time her name was still Virginia Roberts, as a seventeen-year-old girl she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times in 2001: once at Ghislaine Maxwell in London, once in New York at Epstein’s home and once at his private home. island in the Virgin Islands. Later, Andrew will say he doesn’t remember meeting her.
Tragicomic figure
In 2008, Epstein was convicted of a sex offense involving a 14-year-old girl and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Even though it is not yet clear how extensive the abusive practices of Epstein and Maxwell are and that they recruit dozens of girls for sex, public opinion is already questioning the bond between Prince Andrew and Epstein.
In 2011, Andrew stepped down from his role as trade ambassador after photos leaked of him at Epstein’s home in New York. By then, Andrew’s reputation has already been seriously damaged, although Buckingham Palace is still defending him when his name appears in court documents in 2015.
Andrew’s “tragi-comic life,” from a second son who goes through life as a tomboy, is transformed by his contacts with Epstein into something purely “tragic without the comedy,” Catherine Mayer, author of a book about Prince Charles, says of him. in 2019.
The occasion is the infamous interview with the BBC in which Andrew defends himself against Giuffre’s accusations. He says in that interview that during the Falklands War he developed a rare disorder due to an overdose of adrenaline, which prevents him from sweating. It’s a rebuttal to Giuffre, who describes how he hung around her in a club, sweating.
If it turns out last Wednesday that the case against Andrew continues, Buckingham Palace is full. Whether Andrew is guilty or not will probably not even be definitive from the trial, because the criteria for civil cases are different than for criminal investigations.
But for The Firm ultimately protecting one’s own reputation is more important. The triangle of power – Queen Elizabeth, Crown Prince Charles and his son Prince William – decides to strip Andrew of his titles. He will have to defend himself as an ‘ordinary citizen’.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 15 January 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 15, 2022
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