Prince Andrew’s future after the Queen passes away is uncertain. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Andrew’s future after the Queen passes away is uncertain. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
When it comes to the Queen, the minutiae we know about her is extraordinary: Where she gets her bras from; the precise extent of her family's greenhouse gas emissions; and the names and lineage of the more than 30 corgis she has owned dating back to her very first pup, Susan, given to her by her father King George VI for her 18th birthday.
One seemingly simple question that the palace is resolutely refusing to answer? Whether the 95-year-old has Covid.
On Friday, her eldest child and Prince Charles was diagnosed with the virus for the second time, only two days after he had spent some quality time with his Mumsy at Windsor Castle. While the Prince would have been contagious when he was with the nonagenarian, aides have said they will only be commenting on the situation when there is "something to say," according to The Telegraph.
It's an intractable position. While Her Majesty might obviously deserve dignity and privacy she is also the head of state. As debate about what right the public has to know about her personal details burbles away, an inescapable consequence is a renewed focus on her wellbeing and mortality.
And that obviously gives rise to questions about what things will look like when she passes away.
Yes, we now know that Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall will one day be crowned Queen Consort, but there is another pressing issue that remains very much up in the air.
Queen Elizabeth II (centre) watches a Royal Air Force flypast with her family from the balcony of Buckingham Palace on June 16, 2012. Photo / AP
What the hell are they going to do with Prince Andrew?
The Queen might have already defrocked her second son and forced him to assume the ignominious distinction of being nothing more than a "private citizen" but the former trade ambassador is still a painful thorn in the side of the monarchy.
These days he might be no longer able to use his HRH and hold the sum total of zero official patronages but the Duke of York is still very much enjoying the trappings of royal life.
As the monarch's second – and some argue, favourite – son, those perks are non-negotiable. But when Andrew is only the black sheep brother of the new king? Well, that is another situation entirely
Already this week, Charles has reportedly taken action to clip his sibling's wings, "effectively banishing" Andrew from Windsor Castle.
A royal source has told The Sun: "Charles wants Andrew out of the line of sight and out of the picture.
"He has been warned to keep his head down. Charles does not want Andrew to be photographed every other day looking happy and waving as he is driven to the castle."
What this means is that the steady stream of images of Andrew puttering up various private roads in Windsor to see his mother at her nearby castle could be about to come to an end.
Prince Charles, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge arrive for a visit to The Prince's Foundation's Trinity Buoy Wharf in London on February 3. Photo / AP
It's an ominous development that does not bode well for Andrew and speaks volumes about the lengths that Charles will be willing to go to protect the monarchy from his brother's toxic image when he takes over the top job.
Currently, Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York live in Royal Lodge, a 31-room historic mansion in the Windsor Great Park that was the Queen Mother's home for decades.
It is not a property the family privately owns but is leased for a peppercorn rent from the Crown Estate, meaning it is up to the reigning sovereign of the day to decide who gets to live there basically for free. You see where I'm going with things here right?
You don't have to stare very hard at the royal tea leaves to see that things could start to look particularly bleak for Andrew when the Queen's reign comes to a sad end.
While there is no chance that the Duke of York will be made to move while his mother still rules, all the assumptions about what his life looks like could go out the window when Charles takes over.
According to The Sun's royal source, "Eventually Andrew will be made to leave Windsor and could get several million pounds from the royal family."
Given that it has been widely speculated that Charles' son Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge are planning on trading their Kensington Palace home to live in Windsor, this would make perfect sense.
No one would want the positively radioactive Andrew anywhere near the shining hope on which the future of the monarchy rests, the saintly Cambridges.
(William and Kate "have been eyeing up" Royal Lodge, according to The Sun, but other reports have argued that they will in fact "inherit" Windsor Castle.)
It is not only a new address that Andrew might have to find when the Queen passes away but some means of supporting himself.
Queen Elizabeth II is followed by Prince Andrew as she walks in the paddock the first day of Royal Ascot horse racing meet at Ascot, England, on June 16, 2015. Photo / AP
The father-of-two currently depends (and you'd have to imagine the perpetually sailing close to the financial wind Fergie) on the allowance his mother gives him.
Right now, he receives $508,000 annually from the Queen. (He also gets a naval pension which has been reported to be worth about $41,000 each year.)
That money comes from the income generated by the Duchy of Lancaster, the vast multi-billion pound trust which the sovereign controls. (It has never been confirmed but I'd assume that Princess Anne and Prince Edward receive a similar allowance too.)
When Charles becomes king he will assume control of the Duchy's purse strings, thus putting him in sole charge of his brother's main source of income.
Sure, he would be foolish to cut Andrew off completely – just imagine the despots and dubious oligarchs he would end up relying on to keep his afloat – but Charles has demonstrated time and again an unwavering commitment to protecting the monarchy at the expense of his brother's feelings.
In 2012, Andrew was reportedly left furious when Charles made the decision that only those family members in the direct line of succession would appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, cutting la famille York (including daughters Princess Beatrice and Eugenie) out of the picture.
At the heart of this revamped royal image is to do away with the notion that the royal family supports a bloated retinue of family members who all enjoy the fringe benefits of royalty without doing a jot for the British people.
Both of Andrew's daughters live in grace-and-favour royal homes, Beatrice in St James's Palace with her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and their baby daughter Sienna and Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank and their son August in Frogmore Cottage.
Will letting the nieces of the king living in crown properties despite assuming no official duties align with his vision of a slimmed-down royal family?
There are no easy answers here – Charles would not want to look like he was callously booting two young families out when the Crown Estate owns hundreds of homes – but at the same time, the job is about to fall to him to ruthlessly focus on protecting the throne at all costs.
One possible solution here is that Andrew and Fergie could be shunted off to live in a smaller and less prestigious royal property, away from Windsor.
Given the Estate's vast holdings, including in rural Wales, Scotland and even Northern Ireland, here's hoping the disastrous Duke and Duchess have used the years of enjoying royal largesse to stock up on some thick jumpers.
With Charles to one day be in charge, they may very well be about to need it.
• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
