Prince Andrew finally fell on his sword on the weekend and announced he would give up using his titles, amid wide suspicion he was pushed to do so by King Charles. But while the prince will no longer be referred to as His Royal Highness (HRH), nor Duke of York, he is not the first to be coerced into shedding such prestigious labels. 

Prince Harry and Meghan were the most recent royals to lose their titles. Following their departure from royal work in 2020, the late Queen Elizabeth II decreed they must refrain from using their HRHs.

Before that it was Harry and Prince William’s mother, Princess Diana, who lost her HRH when she divorced Charles — although she retained the title of Princess of Wales.

The most famous title relinquishment within the past 100 years was of course Edward VIII who abdicated the throne in 1936, swapped the title “King” for “Duke” and was to all intents and purposes exiled abroad.

Why do titles matter so much?

Andrew is like ‘a bad smell’

To the entitled it’s about power, status and the privileges therein. To the monarchy it’s about branding and reputation, which is everything.

All title losses have involved discord and scandal and reputational damage to the House of Windsor, although none as grave as Prince Andrew’s indefensible close friendship with convicted paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. 

In addition, the former Duke of York added a litany of lies about that connection and attempts to discredit the claims of Epstein victim, the late Virginia Giuffre, by arguing he was eating pizza with his daughters at the time Giuffre claimed she was with the prince. Police are now investigating some of those alleged smears. 

Even as Andrew announced the change to his titles he was declaring his innocence: “I vigorously deny the accusations against me”, he said in the statement released by Buckingham Palace.

Royal biographer Andrew Morton, famous for his biography of Princess Diana, is one of many who view the prince’s arrogance as breathtaking.

“For years Prince Andrew has been following the monarchy around like a bad smell,” Morton told the ABC.

It was Morton’s famous book, Diana: Her True Story, published in 1992 that delivered an early catalyst for the Princess’s title loss four years later. 

“I don’t envy King Charles. He’s made it clear that Andrew is no longer wanted on board when it comes to royal engagements and royal duties and that he wants to get him out of Royal Lodge [the Crown Estate-owned palatial accommodation that Andrew apparently has a “cast iron” lease on], but his hands are tied,” Morton says. “I mean, it’s a mess.”

Despite Prince Andrew’s statement announcing he would cease using his titles, many commentators suspect the royal formerly known as the Duke of York had to be pushed into the title relinquishment. The change also involves Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who lives with him in his grand Windsor house. She is now no longer the Duchess of York. 

Morton doesn’t expect Andrew to follow his great-uncle Edward, who became the Duke of Windsor, nor his nephew Harry and move overseas. He likely doesn’t have the ready cash to live elsewhere in the style to which he’s accustomed. Nevertheless the prince’s future life will most likely be a sort of exile.

“There’s no easy way around it, they can’t send him to jail…they just have to accommodate them [Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson] and I think just staying where they are in the open prison of Windsor Great Park is probably the only solution.”

A Harry and Meghan-sized hole in the monarchy

The Andrew scandal isn’t the only source of concern for the monarchy currently, says Morton.

Despite his recent reconciliation meeting with his father, Prince Harry’s rift with brother William continues to distract attention from royal work. His latest contact with the UK Home Office to once again request security for his family when visiting the UK, has prompted many commentators to wonder if the prodigal son is coming home. 

Morton thinks otherwise.

“Harry and Meghan are bumping along at the bottom of the opinion polls currently, but I think they would soon get up there if they started royal work again — but I just don’t see that happening,” says Morton. 

“I spend quite a lot of time in Montecito, and all the mood music is that they’ve made their lives there. The kids go to school there. They go surfing on Butterfly Beach. Harry makes the odd flight to London for his charities. Meghan’s got a circle of friends who call her Meg. I don’t see her flying back to London at any time soon.”

Morton says the Diana he came to know would be deeply upset by the state of relations between her two sons. 

“She said to me that she saw Harry as William’s wingman certainly not a hitman, and she would have been absolutely devastated to have seen this split between the two brothers.”

And Morton says that devastation includes the wider royal family.

“I think everybody was shocked by the ferocity of the feud, because they seemed very amicable, joshing brothers,” he says. “They organised concerts for Diana’s memory, did charity motorbike rides over in Africa together and Harry, Kate and William were quite the troika.”

As children, the differences between their personalities were very evident, Morton says.

“William had more gravitas,” he explains, while Harry “was the mischievous imp who would shoot at you with a water pistol hiding behind the door.”

Morton believes the monarchy as it stands could benefit from Harry and Meghan’s input.

“The sad thing for me is that I was there at the wedding of Harry and Meghan, and there was such potential,” he says. “They seemed like a genuine step change for the monarchy to have this divorced, biracial American in the family. But it didn’t work out like that, did it.”

The late Queen may have sensed the couple’s itchy feet. 

“In her wisdom Her Majesty gave both Harry and Meghan positions in the Commonwealth. If they wanted to live in New Zealand or in Sydney, that would have suited. And it’s a great shame that they didn’t, because it has left a big hole, not just in the Commonwealth, but in the monarchy.”

Family scandals are hardly new

Family scandals and squabbles are hardly new in the House of Windsor and in his latest book Winston and the Windsors, Morton looks back over some of the dramas, and the British prime minister Winston Churchill’s controlling influence.

“When the Queen came to the throne, she was in the midst of a crisis,” Morton says. 

Following the death of her father George VI, Queen Elizabeth II’s mother, the Queen Mother, was grieving in Scotland and no longer interested in the royal world and public duties.

There was also the drama of Queen Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret, and her relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend who was a divorced former equerry to the King. 

With the abdication of Prince Edward so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson still fresh, the royal family was in no place to accept another senior member forming a relationship with someone divorced.

It took a special visit by Churchill to bring the Queen Mother back on board.

“There’s no prime minister who’s actually guided a dynasty as Winston Churchill did and not just guided but interfered with and he started almost from birth,” says Morton. “He was born in a palace of course, Blenheim Palace, and there he came into the orbit of Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales.”

“So, when the queen [came to the thrown] it was a family at war. And lo and behold, when King Charles takes the throne, guess what? It’s a family at war!.”

Morton’s book examines a time when this singular prime minister had significant control over the royal family’s actions. 

From then on Winston was included in all major aspects of royal life and was in equal measure at time helpful and unbearably meddlesome.

“It did surprise me the fact that he treated kings and queens, just like ordinary people,” Morton says. “He wasn’t intimidated by them.”

In the lead up to World War I, Churchill was invited onboard the royal yacht with then king, George V. 

“You’d think he would be thrilled to be invited for dinner with the king,” Morton says. “Not a bit of it. He wrote to Clementine, his wife, that he’d never heard the king talk so much cheap and silly drivel.”

Churchhill would not approve

There are many revelations in Morton’s new book.

One is the fact that the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, couldn’t stand Churchill. 

Philip viewed Churchhill as a dominating and destructive force in the life of the royal couple in the early years of Elizabeth’s reign. 

“To misquote Princess Diana, there were three of them in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” Morton says, laughing.

“Philip was very much his own man who had made his own life in the world and he resented Churchill’s interference. It did have an impact on the marriage. 

One story goes that the Queen was close to tears when she was told she must inform Philip that their children would be not bear their father’s Mountbatten surname but be Windsors.

Prince Philip’s service in the Royal Navy during World War II was distinguished and his military career was cut short because of his marriage to Elizabeth. Nevertheless, he was seen very much as the coming man. 

But Churchill made sure Philip understood his role was to be consort to the Queen, “not to dilly dally about in boats, running the Navy. [He] also made it clear that they must live at Buckingham Palace [rather than their preferred and cosier home in Clarence House], because that’s where the flag flies,” Morton says.

Today Morton notes the relationship between King Charles and Britain’s current prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is very different. 

“The King is a sophisticated man politically… the relationship seems more far more collaborative,” he says. 

Morton admires the monarch’s recent moves in soft diplomacy with Ukraine and the United States but says Churchill would not be supportive of Prince William’s recent commentary in a TV documentary that he will bring about change when his time comes. 

“I think Churchill will be shaking his head actually because in his mind change and the monarchy are not two words that go together,” he says. “Continuity and monarchy is the thing.” 

Morton says a former private secretary to Queen Elizabeth, Tommy Lascelles, once said trying to change the monarchy “is like interfering with the workings of a Swiss watch”. 

Yet the change to Prince Andrew’s status within the family will hopefully be an exception. 

Andrew Morton’s new book is Winston and the Windsors: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty.