You can run away but you

THE WEBSITE’S gone, the staff dismissed.the uniforms and the tiaras have been mothballed, and at Frogmore Cottage the shutters are up.

Harry and Meghan have set off on a long and lonely exile and who knows when – if ever – they’ll be back.

Last week the doors slammed shut, with Buckingham Palace making the shock announcement that they’ll no longer answer for the Sussexes.

It’s all so familiar to those who recall the abdication of King Edwardviii, and his lifetime spent longing to return.

Then, as now, the royal machine knows how to freeze out a wayward prince. In the darkest days of 1936 the King, relegated to royal Duke, set off from these shores sure that the love of his people would allow him to return once the dust had settled.

How wrong he was.

As far as the public was concerned, plans were open-ended about the Duke’s return – he’d fled to France, got married, found a temporary home. Tomorrow could take care of itself.

But his brother King Georgevi, and especially Elizabeth, his wife, were determined that Edward should stay away. King George held the purse strings, just as Prince Charles holds them today, and as the Duke of Windsor discovered – and the Duke of Sussex will soon discover – cash is everything to a runaway royal.

Windsor spent the rest of his life worrying about money. It led to colossal errors that led to a gradual loss of respect. Like Harry he wanted the very best for his wife, including the costliest gems from Cartier, Harry Winston andvan Cleef &Arpels.

But after a time he stopped paying the bills, kept his hands in his lap when the dinner bill came around, and jumped at every freebie he could get.

The people he now socialised with were not worthy of his company.

He fell into the arms of Jessie Donahue, uncouth daughter of five-and-dime mogul Fwwoolworth, and for five years allowed her to buy holidays and jewels for himself and his wife. When Jessie’s son Jimmy took advantage and began an affair with the Duchess, he had to look the other way.

The Duke, petrified he would run out of cash, sold his story in book form and to magazines.will Harry do the