🔗 Share this article

The Duke of York's reputation has experienced a further major setback with latest media revelations uncovering electronic communication that indicates he had ties with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein more extensively than he had previously asserted.

These allegations are extremely damaging for the Duke of York.

The alleged email throws significant doubt on his account of events given during his BBC Newsnight interview, where he asserted he had severed ties with Epstein after encountering him in New York in December 2010, when the two were photographed together.

The personal tone of the email Andrew is alleged to have sent - "We are in this together" - also compromises efforts to argue they were never intimate.

Negative publicity hasn't exactly been unfamiliar to the Duke of York.

The email released by newspapers is reported to be from February 2011, and earlier this year a further batch of emails from that identical time surfaced, also indicating that Andrew's association with Epstein had persisted time later than he had asserted, which prompted a comparable round of scathing headlines.

What Ramifications Could Result?

Each revelation is followed by calls for Prince Andrew to face some kind of family penalty. So what pressure can the King and the Royal Family effectively apply? How could they separate themselves?

The next major family event for the royals is Christmas in Sandringham. And it seems doubtful that Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will be included. He'll be excluded. And don't look for to see him in the background in the King's Christmas message; any appearances will have been edited out.

The only King that Andrew is expected to see will be if Good King Wenceslas is played on the Christmas carol playlist.

Andrew was absent from last year's traditional royal Christmas because of an claimed Chinese spy scandal, and that exclusion seems expected to persist for another year. It won't have benefited that Sarah Ferguson has been in her own Epstein email scandal - with several of her UK charities severing ties with her.

Property and Financial Matters

There have been frequent calls for Prince Andrew to be ousted from Royal Lodge, his 30-room mansion in Windsor. But Andrew has his own autonomous lease with the Crown Estate that lasts until 2078. Much of the expenses of transferring there were paid upfront when he acquired the property in 2003, and there's little apparent motivation for Andrew to leave now.

If Andrew can afford to pay his bills at Royal Lodge, then it's not clear how he can be removed.

Royal sources say that the King has attempted many approaches to apply pressure, like cutting off Andrew's funding last year.

But Prince Andrew seems to have cultivated his own separate means of finance since departing public life, including economic ties with China, the Gulf States, and a lately reduced project with a Dutch start-up company. He has demonstrated economically stable, despite what must be considerable expenses in funding his own security.

Designations and Formal Roles

There have been demands to strip Andrew of his designations, such as the Duke of York. That idea has substantial public support, with a YouGov poll over the summer showing that 67% of people supported withdrawing his current titles.

It would necessitate the involvement of Parliament, but there is a legal mechanism. It was employed during the First World War to discipline aristocrats who had UK titles but were engaged in the German army.

So it's not unattainable that such a symbolic move might be considered if the drip-drip of scandal became too much to disregard.

Andrew has stayed a Knight of the Garter, a esteemed chivalric award, which in principle could be removed. Although at now he doesn't participate in the regular public event in Windsor and is restricted to the non-public parts of the annual ceremony.

There was once an detailed process for removing someone from being a member of the Order of the Garter, known as "degradation". But that hasn't been employed since the 18th Century. More currently individuals were simply stripped, such as the leaders of Britain's enemies in the First World War, Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary.

Benito Mussolini, Robert Mugabe, and Nicolae Ceausescu all had awards removed. Although the last-mentioned, the Romanian dictator, had his Order of the Bath honor removed the day before he was executed by a firing squad, so it might not have seemed his biggest worry.

Present Position

On past practice, the Palace has favored a more subtle approach to withdrawing status. There was discomfort that Prince Andrew continued a representative of state, who could deputise for the King if he was out of the country or was unwell. Rather than directly remove him, additional advisors were established in 2022 so that Prince Andrew would never have to be employed.

Prince Andrew has already forfeited his HRH title and military patronages - and since he's no longer a "functioning royal" he doesn't have any formal royal obligations. It also signified that Buckingham Palace ceased being responsible for his conduct.

There have been recommendations that the Royal Family should go a step further and "remove" Prince Andrew from public life.

He's already not allowed to attend royal formal events. Instead, his appearances are restricted to private, family events, such as funerals. That arrangement seems expected to endure. Not least because as leader of the Church of England, the King couldn't exactly be viewed prohibiting his brother from spiritual services.

Persistent Challenges

But the Palace must be concerned by these continuous waves of scandal impacting over such a close family member to the King. It endangers to overwhelm their own more noble projects. And it remains unknown what might still surface from the examination of information regarding Epstein.

Activists against the monarchy say there should be a wider inquiry into what the Royal Family might be aware of about Prince Andrew's links to Epstein.

"This is not only about family. It's not a confidential matter," says an anti-monarchy campaigner, chief executive of Republic.

The Duke of York's office has been contacted for comment.