Another feather in Camilla’s cap
Her Majesty told disgraced Duke of York not to appear at Garter ceremony after Royal family’s intervention
The Queen marked the Order of the Garter service yesterday by standing for a picture with the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, who was appointed into the order. Her Majesty did not take part in the procession at Windsor but attended the investiture ceremony. It also emerged the Duke of Cambridge had requested the absence of the Duke of York
THE Duke of Cambridge warned the Queen he would feel uncomfortable in the Order of the Garter ceremony alongside his disgraced uncle.
The Prince of Wales also made an eleventh hour intervention amid fears of a public “backlash”. The pair shared their concerns with each other before taking them to the Queen on Sunday.
As a result, Her Majesty reluctantly told her second son, the Duke of York that he could not appear in public at the event “for his own good”.
As the news emerged hours before the Windsor Castle ceremony was due to begin, Prince Andrew was at pains to portray it as a “personal decision” he had made after realising the “timing was not right”.
“He does not want to do anything that would embarrass the Queen or make things difficult,” one source said.
But Buckingham Palace aides told a different story, describing it as a “family” decision. So last-minute was the intervention that the order of service had already been printed, listing the Duke of York’s position in the procession alongside the Earl of Wessex and ahead of the Duke of Cambridge.
The seating plan also showed that the Duke had been given top billing, positioned between the Princess Royal and the Duchess of Cornwall for the service at St George’s Chapel.
Instead, the Duke joined the Queen and rest of his family only for the investiture in the castle’s Garter throne room and the traditional lunch afterwards in the Waterloo Chamber, both behind closed doors.
The move prevented him from being photographed alongside other royals in the Order’s extravagant velvet robes and plumed hats. The Duchess of Cornwall took part in the procession for the first time, having been appointed a Royal Lady of the Order of the Garter.
Baroness Amos was also appointed to the oldest and most senior British Order of Chivalry, as was Sir Tony Blair.
The latter’s participation prompted a noisy protest outside the castle walls by around 100 Stop the War activists chanting “Tony Blair war criminal”.
The Royal family’s intervention is the latest humiliation for the Duke. His fate was sealed after The Telegraph revealed that he had been lobbying the Queen for a return to royal duties and was even pushing to have the colonelcy of the Grenadier Guards returned to him.
Palace aides are confident this will not happen.
“There’s a big difference between what you ask for and what you get,” one well-placed source said.
The Duke had been looking forward to taking part in the pomp and pageantry of the Garter procession, the first for three years, and had considered it a small step on the way to his return to some form of royal life.
Instead he was photographed looking downcast at the wheel of his car, dressed in a suit.
The last-minute ban is indicative of the Royal family’s sensitivity to the strength of the public feeling about his “pariah” status, after he paid his sexual abuse accuser around £12million to settle a high profile, and highly damaging, civil case in February. The Duke has always denied wrongdoing.
It was considered fortuitous among many members of the family that the Duke was struck down with Covid ahead of the Platinum Jubilee and forced to pull out of the service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Prince Andrew had planned to attend Ascot more than once this week, and was due to appear in the Royal box, but again has had to abandon his plans after being warned it would not look good.
What a sight it would have been. The Duke of York, bedecked in the full regalia of the Order of the Garter, taking what he believes is his rightful place in the procession at Windsor Castle.
Until the eleventh hour, he thought he would make it. But in stepped the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge and suddenly the dream of another comeback attempt was dead.
It fell to the Queen to deliver the news to her third-born child: Andrew was welcome to the investiture part of the ceremony and the Windsor Castle lunch, but walking in front of the television cameras was a step too far.
The outcome was a “family decision”, a senior royal aide said. Roughly translated: it was Prince Charles and Prince William who put their feet down.
In the court of public opinion, it was the right decision. A positive – and some noted fortuitous – Covid-19 test had averted another PR crisis after it cast Prince Andrew out of the only jubilee event he had been allowed to attend, a service of thanksgiving.
After less than a week of peace and quiet came briefings that the Duke of
York was mulling a return to public life with some support from the palace and, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, is asking for roles back, including his colonelcy of the Grenadier Guards.
“It focused minds,” said a source. “This isn’t just a decision about public opinion, this is making it clear to him the expectations for the future.”
Garter Day, with its colourful pageantry, was not the place for a Duke without portfolio.
The Queen, sources said, was willing to listen to the opinion of her two heirs, who have been adamant Andrew has no place on official public duty after his “stepping back”.
Prince Charles and William may not have been able to block Andrew taking centre stage at the thanksgiving service for the Duke of Edinburgh, where he was photographed on the Queen’s arm; but this time the Duke of Cambridge uttered words to the effect of “it’s him or me” for Garter Day, it was claimed. A source close to the Duke of York initially said it was his own decision to pull back from full attendance to an inside-only role.
With two future kings in agreement over the public future of Andrew (limited to non-existent), the phone calls were to the point. Long after the Garter Day programme had been sent to the printers, showing the Duke of York in the procession, the Queen made the final call at the weekend.
And so the Duke was still invited for lunch, joining his family and the Knights Companion and Ladies
Companion. Despite remaining a member of the Order of the Garter, he was not photographed, other than driving to the castle from nearby Royal Lodge wearing his ordinary suit and tie.
True, he has not been convicted of anything. His multimillion-pound settlement of a sex abuse law case has drawn something of a line under the prospect of a royal personal life on the stand. But with his friend Ghislaine Maxwell yet to be sentenced for her role in sex trafficking, the links to the scandal are far from being severed.
Charles and William may be united in a desire to keep Andrew at bay, but only one woman can convince him to agree to it quietly: the peacemaker, mother and eternal diplomat, the Queen.
‘This isn’t just a decision about public opinion, this is making it clear to him [Andrew] the expectations for the future’
‘There were no photos of him, other than driving to the castle from nearby Royal Lodge wearing his ordinary suit and tie’