Prince Andrew – A Royal reckoning

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Published on Friday, 31 October 2025 14:10

Last Updated on 31 October 2025

Lady Rantingham

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Let’s not dress this up in polite court language: the monarchy has been called into account – and yes, I’m cheering. The man formerly known as Prince Andrew, scion of privilege and poster-boy for entitlement, has been stripped of his princely style, uprooted from his Windsor estate, and quite possibly forced to stare at a life he never truly earned.

The Facts: The end of “Prince Andrew”

In a move almost unheard of in modern British monarchy, King Charles III has initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of his younger brother. From now on, Andrew will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease at the expansive Royal Lodge has been served notice; the 75-year ticket to live in stately Windsor surrounds appears to have been revoked.

This isn’t just a demotion. It’s a public, spectacular unravelling of a man and a system that once seemed untouchable.

Accountability at last

What makes this moment stirring – for anyone with a conscience — is that it didn’t begin and end with royal embarrassment. It began with truth, with the courageous voice of Virginia Giuffre. Her posthumous memoir alleged, with undisguised horror, that Andrew had sexual encounters with her as a teenager, trafficked via the network of the now-infamous Jeffrey Epstein.

Her family rightly hailed it as: “an ordinary American girl from an ordinary family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage.”

Until now, the Crown and the Privileged would dance around such accusations — whispers, denials, settlements. But today, the monarchy has taken drastic action. The government, the palace, the public — all watched. All responded.

Privilege, power and plates of gold

Make no mistake: this is about a pensioner of the palace whose lifestyle was maintained by courtesy of millions from the public and the Crown Estate. The peppercorn lease for Royal Lodge, the luxury home while public duties dwindled — these are the trappings of entitlement unchecked.

What we’re witnessing, labelled by some as “a huge moment in world history,” is the House of Windsor acknowledging: yes, we too are vulnerable to scandal and critique — and must pay a price.

But is it enough?

Let me be crystal: this is a step, not the destination. Stripping titles? Good. Moving him out of Royal Lodge? Excellent. But the broader question remains: will the palace ever relinquish the culture of unaccountable privilege that has protected its own for centuries?
Because make no mistake — this isn’t simply about one disgraced duke. It’s about a system built on discretion, deference and damage control. A system where scandal is handled behind velvet curtains, where “Her Majesty’s pleasure” has too often meant “Her Majesty’s protection.”
Yes, Andrew’s nameplate may now read Mr Mountbatten Windsor, but the monarchy’s machinery still runs on silence and spin. Where is the transparency about royal finances, their lobbying, their offshore assets? Where are the real reforms that separate the institution from the unchecked privilege of birthright?
The palace’s swift condemnation looks righteous only because it was forced. The court of public opinion — not the Crown — demanded consequence. And consequence, once rare in those marble halls, arrived only after headlines, humiliation, and a Netflix special.
If the monarchy wants to survive in modern Britain, it must do more than sacrifice one of its own when the optics turn toxic. It must look itself squarely in the mirror and confront what it has long avoided: that power without accountability breeds rot, no matter how dazzling the jewels.

So yes, this is progress – but it’s also performance. Until the royal family dismantles the cocoon of privilege that shields the powerful from scrutiny, this reckoning remains only half-done.

Because true justice doesn’t stop when a prince falls. It begins when the palace stops pretending that any of them were ever above the rest of us.

Yours Lady Rantingham
An unapologetic anti-monarchist nod to the silenced, the survivors and the billionaires behind the gilded curtain