Andrew, son of Queen Elizabeth II and brother to King Charles III, is being stripped of his royal titles and will no longer be called Prince Andrew or His Royal Highness.
He will henceforth be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and will move out of his home at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Buckingham Palace announced Thursday. Here’s what to know.
Does Andrew keep his place in line for the throne?
Despite everything, Andrew remains eighth in line to the throne, after Prince William, his three children, Prince Harry, and his two children.
According to the British Parliament, an individual can only be removed from the line of succession by legislation, which would require the consent of 14 countries that still have Charles as their king. That includes Canada.
Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie (they keep their titles) follow him in the line of succession, along with their children.
Does he keep any Canadian honours?
He lost most of those
. In 2019, after a disastrous interview with the BBC about sex abuse allegations, it was reported that Andrew would no longer be honorary chair of Lakefield College School in Ontario, which he briefly attended in 1977.
This was at the same time that the SickKids Foundation in Toronto announced that he would no longer serve as its honorary patron, and the
said it would not renew its partnership with his charity Pitch@Palace. The
also stepped away from its relationship with him at that time.
In 2022, Andrew was stripped of his
, including colonel-in-chief of The Royal Highland Fusiliers Of Canada and colonel-in-chief of the Princess Louise Fusiliers of Canada.
He retains a Canadian forces decoration, awarded in 2002 in recognition of his years of service, as well as a Commemorative Medal for the Centennial of Saskatchewan, awarded in 2005.
Does he still have a place to live?
While he is being evicted from the Royal Lodge in Windsor — where he had been
under a 75-year lease — Andrew will remain housed somewhere in Sandringham Estate, an 8,100-hectare property owned by the royal family.
Details have not been revealed, but it’s understood the King (not taxpayers)
his lodging.
The BBC reports that Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s ex-wife, will also move out of the Royal Lodge, where she lived in a separate wing. She will make her own living arrangements.
Will he still receive money from the royal family?
It’s uncertain. According to
newspaper, Andrew received a salary of 249,000 pounds per year as a working royal until at least 2010, and a pension of 20,000 pounds a year for his service in the British navy.
Over the past four decades, Andrew has received nearly 13 million pounds in public money for his service as a member of the royal family, the Guardian reported.
What honours are being removed?
The titles being stripped are: Prince, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killyleagh. Andrew will no longer have the right to be called “His Royal Highness.” The honours of Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order will also be removed.
To remove the titles, the King will send Royal warrants to David Lammy, the Lord Chancellor, to officially remove them.
Have other royals lost their titles?
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, announced in 2020 that they were voluntarily stepping back as working members of the Royal Family, but they retained their titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Harry’s mother, Diana, relinquished her title of Royal Highness as part of her divorce from Charles in 1996.
And King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, but was later named Duke of Windsor and kept the style of His Royal Highness throughout his life.
Where does the name Mountbatten Windsor come from?
Despite the storied history of the British monarchy, Andrew’s last name is a recent creation. His father was Philip Mountbatten and his mother, the Queen, was Elizabeth Windsor.
However, even those have been changed relatively recently. In 1917, Prince Philip’s parents anglicized their name from Battenberg to Mountbatten because of anti-German sentiment. At about the same time, Britain’s George V, adopted the name Windsor (after the castle) and dropped the more Germanic Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Windsor is now the official name of the royal family.
