The much-heralded cut in the royal treasury's share of the annual allowance of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the "black sheep" of the House of Windsor, overwhelmed by his involvement in the sex scandal linked to his association with the late American fixer Jeffrey Epstein, and already excluded for several years from any representative role of the British monarchy, has become effective.
After months and months of anticipations, an experienced court biographer, Robert Hardman, now supports this in a soon-to-be-published book whose juiciest excerpts are being given in advance in installments to the tabloid of the day, the Daily Mail.
According to this source , the 75-year-old King Charles III has decided to go all the way in his standoff with Andrew, formally instructing the Keeper of the Privy Purse, a sort of palace treasurer, to stop paying his younger brother - the third-born and once favourite son of the late Queen Elizabeth II - around a million pounds for his personal upkeep and the royal residence where he lives. He also has to stop paying for the security that surrounds him.
A decision that, if confirmed, demonstrates the sovereign's iron will - in a season of generalized savings imposed on court expenses - to stand up to the resistance of the cadet , who according to rumors in the popular press had bet on a possible bluff by Charles. The objective attributed to the monarch, whose never easy relationship with the 64-year-old Duke of York is now described in minimal terms , is to push his brother to move out of the sumptuous residence of Royal Lodge , in the complex of Windsor Castle: a 30-room property in need of restoration that the Duke shares with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
A property far too expensive for the monarchy's coffers and from which the king has long been trying to evict him, by demanding that he pay the maintenance costs out of his own pocket from now on (something that Andrew is not even remotely able to afford, much less if deprived of the extra allowance). Hoping to persuade him to move to Frogmore Cottage, a smaller home granted as a wedding gift by Queen Elizabeth to Prince Harry and Meghan, only to be taken away from them
