How damaging to the royal family is the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew?
- Written by: Dennis Altman, Vice Chancellor's Fellow and Professorial Fellow, Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University
The latest allegations against Prince Andrew, in Virginia Giuffre’s book Nobody’s Girl[1], and reports[2] that he and his wife, the Duchess of York, maintained contact with Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, present an ongoing problem for the royal family.
Giuffre, who died by suicide[3] earlier this year, accused Andrew[4] of sexually assaulting her on three occasions when she was 17. He has repeatedly denied the accusations.
King Charles moved swiftly, ordering his brother to forsake both his title[5] of royal highness and surrender the other orders of nobility that are bestowed on children of the monarch, whether deserved or not.
The removal of royal titles from Prince Andrew – still his name – is hardly the first time the royals have been ruthless in pursuit of respectability. Like other royal families who have survived into the 21st century, they combine celebrity with a keen sense of self-preservation.
History suggests that when scandal strikes, the royal instinct is to remove embarrassments from public view. This is more difficult when dealing with adults in an era of celebrity journalism. When Prince John, son of George V (who was king from 1910-1936), was found to be epileptic, he was carefully removed from public view and even from contact with his family. John died aged 14 and is largely forgotten.
More distressing was the revelation[6] through a television documentary that two cousins of Queen Elizabeth II who had intellectual disabilities were institutionalised and ignored by the family, although the palace has denied this.
But these are minor examples compared to the scandals surrounding the abdication of Edward VIII[7], the refusal to allow Princess Margaret to marry Peter Townsend and the very public exile of Prince Harry to California. It seems the second in line to the throne has a peculiarly troubled life, as Prince Harry made clear in his memoir, Spare[8].
Those scandals all revolved around unsuitable marriages: Edward abdicated when he was forbidden to marry Wallis Simpson; Margaret finally married Tony Armstrong Jones and subsequently divorced him; Harry’s defection from Britain was the direct consequence of his marriage to Meghan Markle.
But whereas Edward could not marry a divorced woman, Charles divorced Diana while heir to the throne and after her death married his long-time mistress, Camilla. In time, Camilla has gone from being excoriated as “the other woman” to a widely accepted queen.
One has to go back a century at least to find a royal prince whose alleged behaviour is so clearly reprehensible – and presumably criminal – as that of Andrew. That he has escaped prosecution is itself troubling, although he paid Guiffre[9] a very considerable settlement while maintaining his total innocence.
Like Harry, Andrew can only be removed from the line of succession by an act of parliament, but he is, after all, only eighth in line to the throne. The king has clearly decided Andrew will no longer be part of the official royal family, unlike his other siblings Anne and Edward.
Perhaps luckily, the prince cannot be shipped off to become a colonial governor, as was the fate of the Duke of Windsor during the second world war. Andrew will presumably be left to his own devices in the grounds of Windsor Castle, banished from family gatherings, which are always at the mercy of the paparazzi.
Hard questions may be asked about the cost to the British taxpayer of maintaining Andrew and Sarah, who live in a luxurious lodge and presumably are well cared for by servants. The British public seem largely unconcerned at the cost of maintaining even non-working members of “the firm”, rather as Australians rarely question the cost of maintaining seven vice-regal residences to maintain the fiction we are a monarchy.
Will this scandal affect the position of the royals? Almost certainly not: in Britain, as in Australia, the enthusiasm for abandoning constitutional monarchy appears to be declining. People can separate their outrage at Andrew from their respect for the monarchy, which is helped by the rise of populist autocrats such as US President Donald Trump.
When Trump visited Britain last month, he was a guest of Charles, who used his role as head of state consummately to flatter Trump with pomp and ceremony, while making clear he did not endorse all his positions.
With the popular William and Kate patiently waiting their turn, the British monarchy is likely to manage even a scandal as great as this one.
Dennis Altman is the author of God Save the Queen: the strange persistence of monarchies, Scribe 2021.
If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. In Australia, you can contact Lifeline at 13 11 14 for confidential support.
References
- ^ Virginia Giuffre’s book Nobody’s Girl (www.abc.net.au)
- ^ reports (www.cosmopolitan.com)
- ^ died by suicide (www.bbc.com)
- ^ accused Andrew (www.bbc.com)
- ^ both his title (theconversation.com)
- ^ revelation (www.youtube.com)
- ^ abdication of Edward VIII (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk)
- ^ Spare (www.penguin.com.au)
- ^ paid Guiffre (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Authors: Dennis Altman, Vice Chancellor's Fellow and Professorial Fellow, Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University
