When the obituaries are finally written of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – and for many in the royal family, perpetually embarrassed by the former Duke of York’s antics, that day cannot come too soon – they will single out his sheer conceit from among his many undesirable and unendearing qualities.
This belief that the rules of society are for “little people” and do not apply to the second son of the late Elizabeth II, his overbearing arrogance, were both on full display on Monday. Only a few hours after the release of the latest damning Epstein files, which shared further unsavoury details of his antics, Andrew was photographed on horseback in Windsor, looking as if he owned the place.
Which, for a while, he did. Or at least this was the case while he inhabited Royal Lodge, where he had the run of the 98 acres of land on which he could ride to his heart’s content. But after the latest Epstein photographs showing him posed Dracula-like over a young woman, it became even clearer that the relative freedom that he had previously enjoyed had to end, and so his enforced departure from the 30-room Royal Lodge to a smaller and more anonymous property on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk was accelerated. He moved out late on Monday evening, and he will now be acclimatising to his new situation.
The decision to eject Andrew from his home was taken by the King in October as a necessary and proportionate response to the latest tide of humiliating disclosures about his behaviour, spearheaded by the publication of Andrew Lownie’s damning biography, Entitled, and the late Virginia Giuffre’s equally incriminating posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl.
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‘Only a few hours after the release of the latest damning Epstein files, which shared further unsavoury details of his antics, Andrew was photographed on horseback in Windsor, looking as if he owned the place’ (Reuters)
Yet it had commonly been believed – not least by the former duke – that he would have several months to settle his affairs and that he would not have to move to Sandringham until his new home of Marsh Farm was made acceptable for him. Now, matters have accelerated considerably, and he will be housed in the royal equivalent of bed-and-breakfast accommodation, Wood Farm, a five-bedroom cottage with outstanding sea views. Andrew will only be slumming it by his standards.
Most people would be delighted at the opportunity to spend time while waiting for their “forever home” in such comfort, but the ex-duke also knows that he will be confronting the figurative ghost of his father, Prince Philip, who retired to Wood Farm in 2017 and lived there until his death in 2021. He had redecorated it in his preferred style and reportedly ran a truffle farm in its grounds. It had also been home to Prince John, brother of George VI and Duke of Windsor and the so-called “Lost Prince,” who was kept out of sight because of his epilepsy and autism and who eventually died there at the age of 13.
While Vanity Fair may have sighed that Wood Farm is “the place where the royals can live as close to normal as possible – even if their normal is a little different from everyone else’s”, Andrew’s reaction to “the new normal” will be to regard even living there for a few months as a punishment ordained by his brother. Yet few will have any sympathy for him or the circumstances of his downfall.
Most would consider that the King was right to kick him out of Royal Lodge and out of Windsor. The disgraced Andrew only has himself to blame for the (comparatively) lowly circumstances he now finds himself in.