But can we spare a mite of compassion for the former Prince Andrew?
The press is crowing over the downfall of the man formerly known as Prince Andrew, now plain Mr Mountbatten-Windsor. They are delighting in his continuing humiliation, stripped of his titles, his home, his income, the support of his brother, and most important of all, whatever remained of his reputation.
Such a convenient scapegoat! The small number of British republicans is gloating. ‘Misconduct in a public office!’ ‘Interviewed by police!’. ‘See what idiots this royal family are!’ Well, good luck with that. Misconduct in a public office is a vague offence and however egregious the misconduct seems to be, only the tiniest number of people has ever been convicted.
A few people are now asking how it could ever have got to this point. But it’s never as simple as it seems. Who thought it a good idea to appoint him to the trade envoy role? Who paid the reportedly £12 million to Virginia Guiffre? Who knew about his continuing association with Jeffrey Epstein long after Epstein had been convicted as a paedophile? Who thought that the notorious interview with Emily Maitlis was a good idea? Where did his money come from?
The answer is that hundreds of people will have known all about all of it.
Throughout his life this man has been protected inside the strange bubble that is the British royal family. As a child his parents were frequently absent. His care was outsourced to staff then to a boarding school, both potentially causes of emotional detachment as an adult. Rude to staff? Well, so what, they were lucky to have such privileged jobs. Teddy bears on his bed? Many people have strange collections and teddy bears are pretty harmless. Divorced? Who isn’t? In his young, good-looking years as an ex naval helicopter pilot, it amused the press to indulge him as ‘Randy Andy’, even though it wasn’t funny even then.
The press talks about ‘courtiers’ as though we are in the 17th century when such courtiers were fellow aristocrats hoping for favour from a monarch who had power. There are a few absurd titles still – Silver Stick, Keeper of the Privy Purse. Today the ‘courtiers’ are working professionals and many do not stay long. I have known some of them personally. Some have been indiscreet enough to tell me what it was like. Mostly it was not at all pleasant: their employers combined meanness about money with impatience when they didn’t get exactly what they wanted. But here’s the thing: many of these courtiers have tended to put up with the bad behaviour because they secretly loved the idea of being part of the royal mystique, even though there is really no mystique left. Some of them threatened journalists with legal action and counter-briefings. They blocked requests under Freedom of Information legislation.
It seems likely that no one felt strong enough, direct enough and powerful enough to tell the former Prince Andrew that he must stop what he was doing because it was morally wrong. They allowed him the delusion that he was untouchable, to live on with that arrogant façade, maybe thinking that his late mother would always protect him.
Is he really as ‘stupid’ as people are now saying? We will never know. He has never had the chance to live in an ordinary way, to be cherished for himself and not for his role, weigh decisions, make mistakes and learn from them in private. Instead, all his life people have colluded with each other, and with him, in the fantasy that there are no consequences to his actions. Now these people will shrug and say that there was nothing they could have done because they were doing what they were told, or were just little people with no authority, even when they did have authority and it was part of their role to challenge. In this, I include members of his close family.
For this reason I may be one of the few people to feel a degree of compassion for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He will have to start again at 66. No one is a lost cause. He could do it with the right help – maybe with a different kind of courtier. A Lord or Lady Coach-in-Waiting perhaps, able to suspend the judgement that the world at large is so eager to dish out. Someone willing to slog through his anger, denial, blaming, grief and potential personal collapse, and then to stick with him. Not an enviable role, and maybe he will never understand how it could help him.
—
Image: Sodacan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
