Spectacular arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor | EUROtoday

In an establishment with greater than 1,200 years of historical past, there are prone to be precedents for nearly every part. However, the case of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is unprecedented within the historical past of the British monarchy. There has been no scarcity of royal scandals over the centuries, though they’ve principally been swept below the carpet. The listing of princes and monarchs who ended up in jail can be not quick. However, these have been normally imprisoned because of dynastic disputes that have been politically, religiously motivated or motivated by bare lust for energy.

The final time one of many ruler’s siblings was arrested was virtually 500 years in the past, when Mary Tudor had her half-sister, the longer term Elizabeth I, imprisoned within the Tower of London. The daughter of Anne Boleyn, who was additionally held prisoner within the Tower for the final days earlier than her husband Henry VIII’s execution in May 1536, was suspected of being concerned within the so-called Wyatt Revolt in 1554 to thwart the wedding of the Catholic queen to Philip II of Spain.

Where right now the judiciary acts on behalf of the crown, again then the monarch’s arbitrary energy may decide the destiny of troublesome family members and rivals. In the tussle for energy between the Houses of York and Lancaster, Edward IV had his fickle youthful brother, the Duke of Clarence, murdered. In his drama concerning the evil doings of Richard III, Shakespeare wrote: To acquire the crown of his eldest brother Edward IV, the legend was raised that Clarence was drowned in a barrel of Malvasia wine.

The passage through which the contract killers confront their sufferer together with his destiny looks like it was aimed toward Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was full of sophistication vanity. The prisoner, woke up from his sleep, needs to know who’s coming to see him. “A human being like you,” is the reply. “Not as I am, royal,” replies Clarence, citing his standing.

Nothing within the lengthy chain of sordid revelations and humiliating degradations illustrates the heights of the previous prince’s fall as emphatically because the picture of the person slumped in horror within the again seat of a automotive, who, after eleven hours in police custody at a station within the small market city of Aylsham in Norfolk, is being transported again to his momentary dwelling in the home on the royal property of Sandringham – to which, satirically, his father had retired from public life on the finish of his days. What was additionally humiliating was that, as when arresting suspects who’re believed to be prone to absconding, the police despatched their vehicles to the entrance and rear entrances with a view to safe all exits.

On February 19, 1960, the beginning of the third youngster of Elizabeth II, who was revered like a saint when she died, was celebrated with an aerial parade over Buckingham Palace. Elton John was employed for the festivities on the event of his twenty first birthday at Windsor Castle. According to the police report, “the man in his 60s from Norfolk” spent his 66th birthday, which entitles him to obtain the state pension of £7,000 a yr, in custody.

It is unclear whether or not he’ll truly must alternate the golden cage of previous for jail bars. The Times, which, like different newspapers, experiences celeb birthdays, identified in a small, snarky notice that “a man named Andrew, who lived to be 66,” was lacking from the listing this time. He was stripped of all titles and honors and thrown out of his home. But the newspaper mentioned the lack of a birthday article would hit him significantly arduous.

Knowing that the comparisons are flawed, the media has dug into historical past for doable parallels with historic royal arrests. Some spoke of the primary royal arrest since 1647, when the Parliamentarians captured Charles I through the Civil War and beheaded him for treason on January 30, 1649. It was referred to as Mary Stuart, who was imprisoned for nineteen years earlier than Elizabeth I signed the dying warrant. Others remembered James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles I, who tried to overthrow his Catholic uncle James II in 1685 and was additionally executed. Recent violations of the regulation have been additionally delivered to gentle, essentially the most severe of which was Princess Anne’s earlier conviction in connection along with her vicious bull terrier canine greater than 20 years in the past.

The justification for Andrew’s arrest was suspicion of misconduct in public workplace, a precept developed from case regulation that’s notoriously troublesome to show. What is supposed on this case is the accusation of forwarding confidential information in Andrew’s capability as a commerce ambassador. Compared to this accusation and the allegations of abuse made in opposition to the previous Duke of York, which weren’t the topic of Andrew’s arrest, the conflicts of members of the royal household with the regulation, that are in any other case restricted to dashing, are in fact trivial. But that doesn’t imply, as has typically been claimed, that the monarchy is within the biggest disaster since Edward VIII’s abdication ninety years in the past – if solely as a result of it issues doable offenses by a brother of the ruler and never the king himself. There can subsequently be no query of a constitutional disaster.

The royal household will definitely be affected by Andrew’s fall. This is already noticeable in the newest surveys from final weekend, earlier than the police operation that was repeatedly described as “seismic”. Since November final yr, the quantity of people that suppose the nation can be worse off if the monarchy have been abolished has fallen 10 factors to 37 p.c.

As public opinion continues to fluctuate, particular person members have additionally misplaced recognition. But the solutions to the query of the continued existence of the monarchy have remained the identical. 80 p.c of Brits imagine it is going to nonetheless be round in ten years, and seventy p.c suppose it is going to nonetheless be round in twenty years. At fifty years previous, opinions are divided. Should Britain develop into a republic, Andrew can be only a nail within the coffin.

The king’s try to avert harm to the monarchy by distancing himself from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor marks a transparent distinction between household and establishment. It is important that the phrase brother doesn’t seem in King Charles’ declaration. Instead, the British royal household’s dedication to workplace is highlighted by the sleek continuation of duties and repair to the general public. The separation of the private from the general public marks a transparent departure from the presentation of the royal household as a “family on the throne,” because the constitutional theorist Walter Bagehot put it, which has been practiced because the Victorian period.

During Victoria’s time, the royal household was mired in scandal, however nonetheless styled itself as an exemplary bourgeois household. Andrew’s great-great-grandfather Edward VII, as inheritor to the throne, needed to take the stand twice, as soon as in 1871 to disclaim that he was having an affair after which within the libel go well with introduced by a pal to defend himself in opposition to allegations of dishonest. When rumors arose in 1889 that Eduard’s son Prince Albert Viktor may need been one of many high-ranking guests to a gay brothel, the ranks of the higher class closed. The police investigation was intentionally delayed in order that suspects may flee overseas. The proven fact that the eighth in line to the throne is no longer above the regulation reveals how instances have modified for the higher on this regard.