Prince Andrew, the disgraced son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor after King Charles publicly stripped him of his title, Andrew isn’t the first royal rocked by scandal to lose a title. In the 16th century, Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary I and Elizabeth I, were declared illegitimate and had their princess titles removed, though they each later became the queen of England. Unlike Andrew, Mary and Elizabeth, a handful of royals have given up their titles. Princess Patricia fell in love with a commoner and gave up her title to marry him in 1919. King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry American Wallis Simpson, and more recently, Princess Diana retained the title of princess but was barred from using the address style Her Royal Highness following her divorce from Charles. Prince Harry and Meaghan lost their address style — no longer able to use His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness — after abandoning England for a life in the U.S. Royals stripped of their titles also have no legal protection. That said, Congress can’t force a foreign national to testify, so requests from the House Oversight Committee for Andrew to answer questions about his involvement with Epstein are just that — requests. Surprisingly, Andrew is still in the line of succession, remaining 8th in line to the throne. Removing him would require the British government to pass a formal law, and that’s not likely to happen. Most likely, your next question is: Will Andrew still get money from King Charles? Andrew is said to have received an annual allowance of $1.3 million from the queen. While Charles has since stopped these payments, he continues to pay Andrew an unknown amount of money and will privately fund his new accommodations. In case you’re wondering, Andrew’s daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, will retain their princess titles.
