As Prince Andrew prepares to move out of his beloved Royal Lodge, let’s acknowledge that a spice played a crucial role in finally forcing him to realize that he could no longer stay there.
Last week, the Times got its hands on the lease that Andrew signed with the Crown Estate in 2003 when he took over the rundown property after the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Sure, he had to pay rather substantial up-front costs for the 40-hectare estate in the heart of Windsor Great Park — “£1 million for the lease plus at least £7.5 million for refurbishments completed in 2005” — but it was the annual rent of one peppercorn for a 40-hectare estate that sent headline writers into a frenzy.
Like Andrew, I had to completely renovate my home. Unlike Andrew, I did that while also paying management fees to my building. For Prince Andrew, that latter cost was a peppercorn a year. That discrepancy between him and most of the public helped crystalize the anger already swirling because of his long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Now, he’s reportedly negotiating his exit from Royal Lodge, apparently destined for the nearby Frogmore Cottage that had been renovated for Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. I guess the five-bedroom Frogmore home isn’t large enough for him and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson who has lived with him for years — they reportedly want her to be given the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage.
Things could morph away from a real estate issue into areas far more dangerous for Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson, and the rest of the Windsors. Politicians have a long list of Prince Andrew’s actions that they’d like to explore, including his scandalous relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, how he finances his lifestyle, and his time as the U.K.’s trade ambassador. They may even call for him to testify (his last time being interrogated was by Emily Maitlis for BBC’s Newsnight — it was disastrous to his reputation).
Now, even PM Keir Starmer has agreed that the Crown Estate needs to answer questions of a Parliamentary committee about how it conducts its business, which hit claims is done on a commercial basis and at an arms length from the royals and government.
In 1992, the royal family’s annus horribilis culminated with the fire at Windsor. When the public was outraged at the thought of footing the cost of its restoration, Elizabeth II quickly squelched that controversy by announcing she’d open Buckingham Palace to finance the reconstruction and also that she’d start paying income taxes.
Lesson: Always go one step beyond what the public is most exercised about — that helps dissipate their fervor.
Now, her son is also watching the public mood and deciding whether he has to go further to assuage public and political outrage. He’s not alone in measuring the impact of the Prince Andrew scandal: the betting firm Ladbrokes slashed nearly in half the odds of the UK voting on a referendum on whether to abolish the monarchy before 2030 from 28/1 to 16/1.
WORTH READING: Julie K. Brown is the Miami Herald journalist whose investigations led to the arrests of both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She uses her social media feeds to offer expert explanations and analysis regarding the current Epstein scandals. In particular, she has a theory about the recent revelations about Prince Andrew. She thinks that they could be coming from Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence and whose team has made no secret of the fact she wants a pardon from President Trump:
It’s bigger than getting women for the Prince. Maxwell knows everything. I suspect that all the leaks (the birthday book, the emails that took down Andrew this past week, the emails that took down the British ambassador) are coming from her camp. She is sending a message.
Andrew’s banner displaying his coat of arms has been removed from St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle now that he can no longer use his knighthood of the Order of the Garter. It is usually a move reserved for traitors. The last living Garter Knight to suffer such a move was Emperor Hirohito of Japan, when that country declared war on the U.K. (it was restored in 1971; Andrew’s is unlikely to be back).
After weeks of scandal, Andrew’s family is staying as far from cameras as possible. According to reports:
Fergie is in a “meltdown,” shocked by the collapse of her career
Their daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, were reportedly blindsided by Andrew’s decision to not use his titles and honours.
Questions are being raised as to how the sisters have financed their own lives, including whether they pay commercial rents for their own royal homes in London: Beatrice in the St James’s Palace complex and Eugenie in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace (famously, it is the home deemed too small and pokey by Harry and Meghan).
The King is 76 years old. The president is 47. What they have in common is their fierce defence of a country which has been at war for more than three years.
That relationship was on display last week when Volodymyr Zelensky received a ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle the day after the King and Queen had been in the Vatican for a state visit. What makes this so unusual is that this is the third time this year that Zelensky has met the King.
Foreign leaders come into London all the time. Most don’t get to meet the King. But Zelensky does — every time.
Earlier this year, he had tea with the King at Sandringham after a divisive meeting with President Trump in the White House. In June, he went to Windsor to have lunch with Charles. Now, he’s back again. No wonder the Ukrainian president later thanked the King for his “unwavering support” for Ukraine’s people.
For once, the photos and videos really capture the historic nature of this visit. If I had to pick two that we’ll see again and again in years to come, then I chose:
The classic official photo of the King and Queen with Pope Leo. Queen Camilla is wearing the traditional black outfit and veil that women wear when meeting the Pope. Her brooch is called the Raspberry Pip Brooch. It is a diamond cross brooch that royal jewellery experts believe dates back to the mother of the late Elizabeth II.
At one point, Pope Leo talked about how he’s still getting used to being in front of cameras. “You get used to it,” the King said. The media was out in force to document the reason for the trip: an ecumenical prayer service in the Sistine Chapel.
And that brings us to the second iconic image, which shows Pope Leo and King Charles walking in that beautiful chapel. On the walls are two of the ten priceless tapestries created by Raphael. The Royal Collection has seven of the cartoons used to create those works. They are on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum (I strongly recommend visiting them the next time you’re in London). Bendor Grosvenor has a fabulous thread on Twitter/X about the Raphaels chosen for this visit.
Update: it turns out that saying this was the first time a British monarch and pope had prayed together since Henry VIII broke with Rome five centuries ago was an undercount by a quarter of a millennium or so. Andrew Sillett, a researcher at Oxford University, believes that last joint prayer occurred in 1273 when Edward I wanted Gregory X to excommunicate the son of a rival.
Once is an accident.
Twice is a coincidence.
Three times is a pattern.
Ten times is …. a problem.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source writeroyalty.substack.com ’
