How much could Andrew’s arrest hurt the Royal Family?

24 minutes agoJonny DymondRoyal correspondent

PA

How does this work out any way other than badly for the Palace, the Royal Family, and the monarchy?

The King’s brother has been arrested, taken from his home on the King’s estate at Sandringham, photographed and fingerprinted.

Just days ago, this was the man living at Royal Lodge, in thirty-room splendour in Windsor Great Park.

Just weeks ago, this was “Prince” Andrew, issuing a statement via the Palace proclaiming service and innocence.

Just months ago, he was pictured on the steps of Westminster Cathedral, in amongst the rest of the family at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent.

And for years after his withdrawal from the role of trade envoy in 2011, he used Buckingham Palace as the backdrop for his investment venture, Pitch@Palace.

No one would envy the position of the King right now; his supporters point to the actions he has already taken – stripping titles and home from his brother, as well as promising cooperation with any inquiries.

They point to what they say has been the speed and determination with which he has acted.

And they point to the statement issued in the hours after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest. A statement made without a single reference to the ties of blood between the King and Andrew.

Where he wrote of his “deepest concern” about “Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office”, the authorities, he said, “have our full and wholehearted support and cooperation”.

This, say his defenders, is the King putting to one side whatever family loyalty he may feel.

Jonathan Dimbleby, the King’s biographer and friend, drew a line on Thursday on the BBC’s World at One between the Royal family and the monarchy.

“I don’t think that it damages the monarchy,” he said of the arrest. “I think we have to separate the notion of a family from the institution of the monarchy.

“I think it’s very important. It’s very easy to align the two.”

Some believe the arrest will give the Royal Family and the Palace some breathing space, and that the treatment of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as just-another-suspect will lessen the damage done.

It might be a drop of comfort on a terrible news day. But it does not get close to even a glass half full.

For years, for decades, the Palace, the institution that serves the Royal Family under its direction, has drawn a line between the public role of members of the family and their private lives.

Reuters

As Andrew withdrew from public life, so the Palace withdrew from representing him.

But the distinction – so important to the Palace – is entirely lost on most people; the Palace, the Royal Family, the monarchy, all seem as one.

Andrew may not have been on the Buckingham Palace balcony for a while. But for more than six decades he was part of what his father Prince Philip used to call “the family business”.

The idea this is or was a “private matter” is for the birds. Mountbatten-Windsor is the former Prince Andrew, and remains in the line of succession to the Crown. Royal blood is the point of a hereditary monarchy.

Even if he were simply a “commoner”, his past relationship with the Royal Family and the place would be enough to draw the monarchy into the controversy.

Who knows what might emerge from the “wholehearted” cooperation with investigations that the King has promised?

The Palace points to the King’s unprecedented moves so far – stripping Andrew of titles and home, offering assistance, and refraining in any way from seeking favour from the authorities.

There can be little doubt of the struggle the King has had, balancing family loyalty, a situation he inherited upon accession, and his duty to the Crown.

But the monarchy is about continuity; it is an accretion of what has come before as well as a living thing that responds to the present.

The King’s supporters stress how much he has done. The institution’s detractors will ask why it did not act earlier, why it was not more curious as reports and allegations mounted, and at what point and why did it change in the way it treated the former prince.

The drama of the day will die down, but damage has already been done. The question for the Palace, Royal Family and the Crown – how much more is to come?