As we’ve discussed, Robert Hardman is the latest royalist to have written a “biography” of Queen Elizabeth II. Hardman seems to be differentiating himself from the crowded field of hacks by at least acknowledging that QEII got it very, very wrong with her favorite son, Prince Andrew. Of course, the first excerpts from Hardman’s book were all about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, because obviously “telling endless lies about Harry & Meghan” is how all of these biographers sell and promote their sad little books. I’ve said for years that these people are too stupid to realize that there’s a lot of money to be made by writing about the monarchy’s death rattle. Well, Hardman comes closer to it than any of the other recent biographers. He recently spoke about how Andrew’s behavior was so appalling for so many years, and no one did anything about it. Apparently, Andrew even assaulted a senior member of QEII’s staff.

During his time as Trade Envoy, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor allegedly struck the Master of the Royal Household after being refused the use of a room in Buckingham Palace to host a charity event, royal biographer Robert Hardman claims in a new Daily Mail podcast.

Speaking on a special episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Hardman described the incident between the former prince and Vice Admiral Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt as ‘appalling’ – so serious that Prince Philip felt compelled to pen an apology letter on his son’s behalf. The story is just one of many new revelations about Andrew from Hardman’s new book, Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story., published to mark the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth.

The Daily Mail columnist rejected claims the late Queen shielded Andrew from the consequences of his bad behaviour, but admitted she saw him as her most ‘vulnerable’ child and therefore treated him differently to his siblings.

‘He was not as bright as the others, he could be boorish and everyone knew that,’ Hardman said of Andrew. ‘David Cameron said to me when I was writing the book, all the other members of the family knew the boundaries, they knew what they were supposed to do and what they shouldn’t. I saw with my own eyes at places like the World Economic Forum in Davos how Andrew would come in and upset people, say the wrong thing, cross a line.’

‘There was this appalling moment where he actually punched the Master of the Royal Household. It’s an extraordinary story that I go into in some detail in the book. There’s a very distinguished Admiral, Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Royal Household. Andrew wants to have an event for his Pitch at the Palace charity. Andrew says, I want this room and Sir Johnstone-Burt says actually, they are all fully booked but I will see what I can do. He then goes, ‘no I want this’, not taking no for an answer. This ends with Andrew actually hitting the Master of the Royal Household. It would be court martial stuff in the Royal Navy.’

Hardman claimed that news of the embarrassing altercation was ‘raised up the chain of command’, getting the attention of the Lord Chamberlain, Prince Philip and ultimately, the late Queen.

Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt remains a ‘very popular figure’ in Palace circles, Hardman noted, and continues to serve as Master of the Household under King Charles to this day.

‘When the Queen hears about it, she’s not remotely surprised’, Hardman alleged. ‘Prince Philip writes a letter of apology to the Master. Prince Andrew, I am told, wrote a very mealy mouthed, not quite apology. I think we can understand where the Queen’s sympathy lay because not long afterwards, the Master got a knighthood.’

Hardman predicted that more embarrassing details about Andrew’s conduct as Trade Envoy are likely to emerge in time. ‘There are ample stories of him just throwing his weight around… we will start to discover more about other government departments, other Palace departments, who maybe should have acted sooner… As we approach the 100th birthday of Elizabeth II, that’s obviously there on the relatively short list of things she got wrong. I think she got a lot more right.’

[From The Daily Mail]

So, instead of leading with this story of Andrew assaulting a vice admiral and QEII doing nothing about it, Hardman instead promoted his book by putting the latest fiction about Meghan’s wedding tiara front-and-center. “How dare Meghan ask to borrow the tiara for an afternoon hair-trial” is considered a much bigger crime than the queen’s son assaulting a senior member of her staff. Andrew should have been court-martialed or, at the very least, charged with assault by the Met police. Notice how QEII handed out a knighthood to the guy to cover up Andrew’s crimes. Kind of like how she handed out an eight-figure settlement to cover up Andrew’s crimes. Kind of like how she made Andrew a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 2011 to take the heat off of him when his Epstein crimes were making headlines. At what point will these people acknowledge that QEII was pretty terrible?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar.