The reason why the monarchy, the royalists, the aristocracy and the British press have all covered for Prince Andrew for decades is because they don’t have a problem with anything he’s been accused of doing, or which he has actually done. The reason why those same people have an issue with Prince Harry is because he walked away from them and refused to let them destroy his wife and family. Harry is still persona non grata with royalists, courtiers and royal reporters because he broke the invisible contract (not to mention the Windsor omerta) and Andrew has not. King Charles has always shown more support for Andrew because the king literally supports Andrew more than he supports Harry. That visible and tangible support sends a message, a message that royal loyalists can support Andrew too, look, he’s still invited to Christmas at Sandringham, he still attends Easter service with his brothers! And as Tom Sykes points out in his Royalist Substack, Andrew’s friends simply have no problem with Andrew because at the end of the day, Andrew will still host shooting parties.

Friends of Prince Andrew have told The Royalist that he is looking forward to the pheasant and partridge shooting season kicking off in just under two week’s time, and that he has his usual roster of days and overnight shooting parties booked for the winter. His friends are showing support privately by vowing to continue to include him in their annual rituals, including, most notably, what Andrew ill-advisedly called in his disastrous Newsnight interview “straightforward shooting weekend(s).”

One friend said, “Andrew has been treated monstrously by his family. He has done everything they have asked. He has been found guilty of no crime.”

Another shooting acquaintance of Andrew’s told me that they understood that he will be keeping his Windsor “family day” to which he has customarily invited friends and business contacts. He is likely to receive multiple invitations for shoots in England and Scotland over the months ahead, some of which he has attended for decades, hosted by landowning friends who remain loyal to him.

Charles’ disinclination to strip him of his shooting privileges, which were first gifted to him by his mother and father, will be seen as yet another sign that Andrew’s remorse-free and defiant announcement on Friday that he would stop using his title, is nothing more than a performative slap on the wrist for Andrew, who will continue to live in Royal Lodge—and even retains the title Duke of York in law, despite solemnly promising not to use it.

Hosting a day or two at some of the best shooting in the land is a powerful incentive for bloodsports enthusiasts to remain on friendly terms with Andrew. For Andrew, it’s a passport to a winter of posh fun, as, according to unwritten convention, shooting invitations are not generally supposed to be accepted unless they can be returned in kind. (Shortly due to get started, the pheasant and partridge shooting season runs to the end of January. The grouse season is already underway.) Thus the decision by the king to allow him to continue hosting shoots effectively guarantees him a splendid winter of shooting and socialising at some of England’s grandest houses.

Asked how they could countenance inviting Andrew to their home or accepting his hospitality after the revelations that he stayed in contact with Epstein after he said he did, one landowner told The Royalist, “In England, it is customary to consider a man innocent until proven guilty. Those baying for Andrew’s blood would do well to re-read The Crucible.”

Pressed on the implications of the email in which Andrew told Epstein, “We’re in this together…Let’s play some more soon,” which he sent in response to the publication of the famous photograph of him with his arm slung around a teenage Virginia Giuffre’s bare midriff, the friend angrily replied: “So you would condemn him on the basis of a private email leaked to a newspaper?”

A fresh report in the Observer (now part of Tortoise Media) on Sunday said that the king had not banned Andrew “from using royal estates to go shooting with his friends, or horse riding,” and cited “well-placed sources” as saying Andrew would “still be able to use the taxpayer-funded royal estate at Windsor Castle and the monarch’s private residences at Sandringham and Balmoral for his favourite sports and pastimes.”

[From The Royalist Substack]

It might sound ridiculous or unimportant, but within this world, the real punishment would be “denying Andrew’s shooting privileges.” Like, that would actually hurt him more than giving away his titles. That being said, from the way his friends speak about him, I suspect that they would still invite him on shooting weekends even if he couldn’t reciprocate with invitations to Sandringham or Windsor. The justifications are mind-numbing and I can just hear the posh-but-huffy old-man voice saying “Those baying for Andrew’s blood would do well to re-read The Crucible” (this is not a f–king witchhunt) and “So you would condemn him on the basis of a private email leaked to a newspaper?” Which is also false – the email came from the House investigation into the Epstein files.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.