King Charles III’s brother Andrew and his younger son Harry continue to cause problems for the monarch in the run up to his 78th birthday on 14 November. This is nothing new: throughout history kings have been held responsible for their family difficulties, as Shakespeare portrayed in Henry V.
‘Blame the king! Let’s blame the king for what happens to our lives, our souls, our debts, our sad wives, our children and our sins! I have to be responsible for all of it,’ the Bard wrote – here with a modern translation.
In the latter part of 2026 domestic problems have come thick and fast for the King. Not least of these are found within the pages of his former brother-in-law Earl Spencer’s book about his late sister, Diana, Princess of Wales. On several occasions after her accident Charles Spencer vowed he would never be one of those to profit from her death. He has clearly revised his position.
Another enduring problem – that of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – is not going away any time soon. Some feel his greatest ‘crime’ is not his alleged association with young girls or his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, but his own phenomenally bad judgement. His instinctive stance is a permanent ‘how dare you?’ whether the subject is his friendships, his business dealings, his affairs or the way he treated the staff who once surrounded him.
Whichever way you look at it, Andrew’s unfortunate situation made for undeniably gripping theatre when Thames Valley Police arrested the former prince at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate on his 66th birthday in February. They also arrived with a search warrant for Royal Lodge, the Windsor Great Park mansion he had clung on to for years.
Andrew spent 12 hours in custody, during which the King released a statement. ‘Let me state clearly,’ he said, ‘the law must take its course’. Fast forward eight months and a High Court judge grants Andrew permission to seek a judicial review of the force’s action over those searches. This is the first time a member of the royal family has challenged the lawfulness of criminal proceedings against them since the trial of King Charles I in 1649. Mr Justice Hilliard said that an agreement had been reached between Mountbatten-Windsor and the police that the search warrants had been unlawful. The investigation will continue, however.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have hardly been out of the headlines since they arrived back in Britain in August. Having settled their children into a new school, they removed them two days later claiming they had not realised how long the school run would take in the morning traffic and was therefore a security risk. They then placed them in a school nearer to where they live, only to discover that European paparazzi had been stalking the perimeter to get photographs of Archie and Lilibet. A huge fuss ensued, which Harry might hope will improve his family’s chances of getting tax-funded security while in the UK.
I hope you enjoy the extract from my latest book, Catherine & Diana, in this issue and that you will enter our competition to win a signed copy.
