Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s spectacular fall from grace last year hasn’t discouraged a subset of the royal fanbase, who have labelled his ostracism a “medieval witch hunt”. Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son was banished from the fold following years of controversy over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in October.
While he has denied allegations of sexual assault from trafficked teenager Virginia Giuffre and any knowledge of Epstein’s illegal activities, Andrew’s public support has plummeted in recent months, with a YouGov report last October finding that 91% of Brits have a negative view of him. The 4% of the nation who continue to hold positive opinions of the former Duke of York have coalesced into a vocal online community, however, with members of a handful of forums denouncing his “mob-like” trial by media and suggesting “nothing will be good enough” to satisfy doubters of his innocence.
“What’s happening at the moment is simply too much,” one contributor wrote on Theroyalforums.com. “It’s like a medieval ‘witch hunt’.”
“I think some people won’t think anyone has done enough until he’s been rendered homeless, broke, in prison, formally stripped of literally anything,” another said. “Nothing will probably ever be good enough.”
A MumsNet user also chimed in on the discussion on a thread dedicated to discussing the royals. “He’s convicted of no crime,” they wrote. “But he’s so loathed and despised people won’t be satisfied until he’s in the gutter somewhere.
“There’s no satisfying this baying mob and it demonstrates how little we’ve advanced over the centuries.”
Defenders of the disgraced former Prince also insisted his military history should earn him a degree of respect from the general public, in spite of overshadowing controversies.
Andy Cooper, 59, an accountant from Harrogate, told The Telegraph: “People seem to forget he fought in the Falklands. He put his life on the line for his country. Whatever you think about the royals, who would want to do that job?
“He may well have done something [illegal]. I don’t know, but you are innocent until proven guilty. Clearly he has been unwise to associate with Epstein. But what I keep thinking about is, what if he’s innocent and his life has been ruined?
“There isn’t going to be a trial, there isn’t going to be any proper attempt at fact-finding. We’ll never know. It’s all speculative.”
Andrew stepped away from his public role in 2019 and later paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre, who he claimed never to have met despite being pictured with his arm around her at convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home.
Pressure mounted on the royals to exile Andrew in the autumn after newly surfaced emails from the Epstein files included one sent from Balmoral and signed “A”, asking Maxwell if she had “found me some new inappropriate friends”.
He was ordered to stop using his HRH title in 2022 and agreed to step back from his Duke of York title in October, but King Charles went a step further just a fortnight later, stripping him of his right to be a prince and his dukedom, making him a commoner for the first time.
He also agreed to quit his 30-bed mansion in Windsor for a home on the King’s private Sandringham estate in the new year, with the King personally funding his new life through an annual stipend.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
