Prince William has threatened Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice with the removal of their titles if their father, Prince Andrew, does not move out of Royal Lodge, it was claimed Tuesday.
The revelation comes days after the Royalist exclusively reported that William was mulling plans to strip HRH’s and princely titles from Andrew, Beatrice, Eugenie.
Prince Andrew’s rent at his palatial home, Royal Lodge, is a mere “one peppercorn (if demanded)” per year, it has been revealed.
The sensational development was reported by the News Agents podcast, which is hosted by Emily Maitlis, the journalist who conducted the devastating BBC interview that ruined Prince Andrew.
Maitlis, citing media sources, also said that Buckingham Palace told selected media on Thursday that they would be able to photograph King Charles driving into Royal Lodge to read his brother the riot act, but that they “chickened out” when the BBC sent a helicopter to cover the “passing traffic.”
Maitlis said that on Thursday night, “the Palace told ITN and the Press Association—the big wire services—to crew the gates outside Royal Lodge at 8 p.m. because, and this was the phrase they used, ‘there may be passing traffic.’ Nothing more was said — just that there may be passing traffic.”
She then added, “There was a question over whether there had been, earlier in the day, a meeting between Prince William and the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie saying, ‘You’ve got to get your dad to move out of Royal Lodge, otherwise we will start re-examining the state of your own titles.’ They are, at the moment, allowed to be princesses, but there was pressure being put on them. Obviously, you can see why Andrew, as a father, would want to keep his daughters happy and keep their titles in place.”
The revelation about pressure being put on the princesses by William came as Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew’s camp said the king had offered them two houses, one each, as compensation for moving out of Royal Lodge, as opposed to them demanding it.
His brother Harry, and his children, Archie, and Lilibet, could also be on the titles hitlist when he becomes king.
William is said to be enraged by the offer, and it is now clear that he has effectively taken control of the process to sever Andrew from the royal family, exasperated by his father’s dithering and ineffective approach.
Just 10 days ago, in official briefing notes distributed to the media after Andrew said he would stop using his titles, the king’s office said Andrew’s tenure at Royal Lodge was not up for debate as part of the new settlement, a sentiment which left William in “despair” when he saw it, according to The Royalist’s sources.
It’s a clear sign of the chaos at the heart of King Charles’ court, where discipline has completely broken down as courtiers, family members, and aides have taken advantage of the weak and ailing king’s lack of control to push their own agendas.
William’s brutal threat to Andrew’s children is also a reflection of the simple fact that it would make no financial sense whatsoever for Andrew to move out of Royal Lodge if he only did so under the terms of his lease.
In that case, Andrew would receive only about £557,000 (US$742,000) in compensation.
He effectively prepaid £8.5 million (US$11.3 million) for 75 years’ occupation, which works out to roughly £113,000 (US$150,000) a year, a tiny sum for a 30-room mansion in Windsor Great Park on 90 acres whose market rent would easily exceed £1 million (US$1.33 million) per year.
Staying put, therefore, offers him extraordinary value: over the next 50 years he and his heirs could enjoy accommodation worth at least £50 million (US$66.5 million) on the open market, for no further outlay.
Andrew, in other words, is going to need more carrot or more stick to get him to move.
King Charles has been trying to push Andrew out of the gigantic Royal Lodge for over a year, with speculation that he wants the property as a dower house for his wife Camilla after his death. The precedent is there as it was formerly the dower house of the late Queen Mother after the death of her husband, King George VI.
Charles has been humiliated by his abject failure to eject Andrew from the property, and earlier this year accepted that he had lost the battle.
Charles’ team’s spectacular mismanagement of the entire Andrew affair has incurred the wrath of Prince William, who, in a bold demonstration of his growing power as his father lives with incurable cancer, coordinated the moves to get Andrew to renounce his title, something Charles’ team had long said was impossible, impractical and pointless.
Andrew’s coming eviction from Royal Lodge, and sources have told The Royalist it’s a matter of “if not when,” is another sign of his growing power.
One source told The Royalist that William was left in despair when he laid his eyes on the media briefing notes issued by the palace a week ago last Friday which said Andrew would be staying on at Royal Lodge.
The prince was reported Monday to be demanding one house for him and one for his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who is not a royal and in 2010 was taped trying to sell access to Prince Andrew for £500,000 ($650,000) in a clear case of influence peddling that was unsurprisingly never prosecuted by the police.
A friend told The Sun, “Andy is willing to leave, but these are his demands.”
However the Yorks have briefed The Daily Mail that the two houses concept was the king’s idea.
A source described as being “close to Ferguson” told The Times the same thing.
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