Starting the year, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen had agreed on ripping Prince Andrew off his titles and military affiliations. They added Prince Andrew would be defending his case as a “private citizen.” The case the announcement meant, was the accusation against him for collaborating with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell; an accusation that he’s been denying for months.
Ever since Virginia Giuffre accused the Duke of York, he stepped down as an active royal member and has been hiding from all public appearances. The statement from Buckingham Palace came right after a judge ruled a civil lawsuit against the Prince, and Prince Andrew is quite close to facing an actual trial.
A member of the Royal family on the brink of trial seems like something unprecedented, but he’s actually not the first to be in that position. Here are some royals who have had a brush with justice.
Princess Anne
Turns out that Prince Andrew isn’t even the first child of Queen Elizabeth with legal issues, her only daughter and second child, Prince Anne has faced justice, not once, but twice. To be fair, both were minor incidents. The first one happened in 2001 when she was convicted for exceeding the speed limit while driving on her Bentley in Gloucestershire. She pleaded guilty and was fined £400 and got penalty points on her driving license.
The second incident happened just one year after when one of her dogs, Dotty, an English bullterrier, bit two children who were passing through Windsor Great Park. She was tried and convicted under the Dangerous Dogs Act, and fined £500 plus £250 in compensation and £148 in court costs. She paid and Dotty’s life was spared.
King Juan Carlos I
The former King of Spain, Juan Carlos I abdicated in favor of his son, and now monarch Felipe VI, for one very good reason. Juan Carlos has been involved in a series of criminal investigations involving corruption, but most recently a more serious issue came to the surface. The issue was an illegal billionaire deal with Saudi Arabia. According to the inquiry that started in 2020, Juan Carlos was involved in a corrupted contract for the construction of a high-speed rail line between the cities of Medina and Mecca, these were granted to a Spanish consortium that is allegedly tied to Juan Carlos. At the moment he’s been living in some sort of exile in the Zaya Nurai Island which is 15 away from the United Arab Emirates. He’s been trying to move back to Spain, but he hasn’t been granted permission.
King Charles I
Now, for our next case, we have to go many centuries back in time to the 17th century. Charles I was king of Britain but unlike some of his recent predecessors, he didn’t believe in a parliamentary monarchy, but rather in a divine right to rule. Neglecting Parliament, Charles tried to levy taxes and make decisions without their approval sparking a serious rivalry between the two powers. To that, we must add the religious differences between both parties with Charles having married an openly Catholic woman. Eventually, his tyrannic tule sent him to a violent war he lost and for which he was tried and executed. He was the first European monarch to be tried and sentenced to death in history even before Mary Antoinette and King Louis XVI.
Mary, Queen of Scots
Also in British royal history, we have Mary Queen of Scots, who suffered the same violent ending as Charles. As a matter of fact, she was his grandmother. After the death of her second husband, Mary became the main suspect. She fled and tried to seek help in England with her cousin Elizabeth I, but the latter was a bit paranoid and thought Mary was trying to take the throne from her. She sent Mary to prison and was eventually tried and convicted of treason. She was also executed.
Varying in severity, these royals have had to face legal consequences of their acts. It’s often believed that royals aren’t forced to face justice, but actually, in Britain, only the Queen is granted that favor. The fact that Andrew might be facing a trial is indeed unprecedented for the seriousness of his case, and to be honest, the Crown should be doing much more than just stripping him from his titles.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons
