Prince Andrew has been stripped of his title “prince” and will leave his Windsor mansion, the Royal Lodge at Buckingham Palace has announced.
The king has “initiated the formal process” of stripping his titles, the report said, and Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
Andrew, 65, the king's younger brother, has continued to face more questions about his personal life in recent months.
His links to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein caused problems for the royal family. The prince, who renounced his titles this month, has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The dramatic fall from grace now only affected him, but his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and their children, Beatrice and Eugenie.
What did Buckingham Palace say?
“His Majesty today initiated the formal process to remove Prince Andrew's style, titles and honors,” Buckingham Palace. says the statement on Thursday evening.
“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.”
It also concerned the place where he lives, the Royal Lodge.
“His tenancy at Royal Lodge to date has provided him with legal protection to continue his occupancy.
“A formal notice to abandon the tenancy has now been served and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are considered necessary despite the fact that he continues to deny the charges brought against him.
“Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies are and will remain victims and survivors of all forms of violence.”
It is assumed that Andrew did not object to the king's decision to strip him of his titles. [Reuters]
The language in Buckingham Palace's statement was “very harsh”, royal historian Kelly Swaby told the BBC.
“Ordinary people don't care about semantics, they want to see punishment and public opinion is very much against Andrew, the Palace knows this and the language very much reflects that.”
It is clear that the decision was made and action taken due to serious errors in judgment by Andrew.
It is also understood that the royal family and government have been consulted and have made it clear they support the decision.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jenny Bond said she believed the Prince of Wales was pushing for the recent actions.
“I think that line had to be drawn, and William probably insisted that the king do it,” she said.
“William is about to go to Brazil on a very important tour – and the King and Queen's recent tour to the Vatican was almost overshadowed by what was going on with Andrew and it couldn't be allowed to continue.”
Former BBC royal correspondent suggests Prince William urged his father to take action against Andrew [Reuters]
Where will he live?
Andrew will move to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. [Getty Images]
It is clear that Andrew will be transferred to Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, but details of his specific accommodation have not been released.
The wider Sandringham estate is approximately 20,000 acres (8,100 hectares) with 600 acres (242 hectares) of gardens, and the palace has not said which property it will stay at.
It is understood Andrew is unlikely to move to Sandringham Forestry Farm, the former home of his late father.
Official notice to relinquish the Royal Lodge lease was given on Thursday, with Andrew's move to Sandringham expected to take place “as soon as possible”.
What will happen to Sarah Ferguson, Beatrice and Eugenie?
[Getty Images]
It is understood Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, 66, will also move out of Royal Lodge and live on her own.
She lost her royal title as Duchess in early October when Andrew lost the ability to use his title as Duke of York, reverting to his maiden name.
Although the public had long referred to her as “Fergie”, royal commentator Richard Palmer told the BBC then the name change will “no doubt” have an impact.
“She will lose a little bit of her image because of this,” he said. “She definitely uses the title – even her Twitter bio is @SarahTheDuchess.”
For their daughters, Beatrice, 37, and Eugenia, 35, there are no formal changes.
They will still remain princesses because they are the daughters of the sovereign's son – according to King George V's 1917 Letters Patent.
Their places in the line of succession will also remain the same.
Andrew remains eighth in line to the throne despite losing his titles, followed by Beatrice and Eugenie in ninth and twelfth places.
But their position within the family is “low” and is likely to deteriorate over time, royal commentator Victoria Murphy previously said, adding that she does not see them, as non-working royals, taking up official duties anytime soon.
It was “recognized that this scandal does not affect them,” she also said, “and it is unfair that it directly affects the independent lives they are building for themselves.”
Will he receive money from the king?
The King will take care of his brother when he leaves the Royal Box. [Getty Images]
It is understood that Andrew's accommodation will be privately financed by the king.
And the king would make “suitable personal provisions” for his brother when he left home.
Royal sources previously said the king tried to apply pressure and cut off Andrew's funding last year.
Since retiring from public life, Andrew has also begun to develop his own independent sources of funding, including business links with China, the Gulf States and a recently abandoned project with a Dutch start-up company.
Earlier this week, the Public Accounts Committee, which oversees parliament's spending, wrote a letter detailing the “significant and understandable public interest in spending public money” regarding Andrew.
The letter asked what the Crown Estate's plan was to ensure value for money in any future agreements with Andrew.
How will Andrey's titles be deleted?
It is assumed that Andrew did not object to the king's decision to strip him of his titles.
His birth certificate does not need to be changed, and the title change will not apply retrospectively.
Titles stripped: Prince, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, Baron Killyleagh. And he will no longer have the right to be called His Royal Highness. The Order of the Garter and Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order will also be cancelled.
To strip titles, the King will send Royal Warrants to the Lord Chancellor, who is David Lammy, to formally strip them.
This comes just weeks after Andrew voluntarily renounced his other royal titles, including that of Duke of York.
On October 17, Andrew said he would stop using the titles because “the ongoing allegations against me are a distraction from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.” “I strongly deny the charges brought against me,” he said.
Until this month, Ferguson retained the title of Sarah, Duchess of York, but she reverted to her maiden name Ferguson after Andrew was stripped of the Duke of York title.
Where did the surname Mountbatten Windsor come from?
The surname Mountbatten Windsor was created in 1960 and combines the surnames of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip when they married.
In 1917, fearing anti-German sentiment in Britain, reigning monarch George V adopted the name Windsor to replace the original Germanic-sounding house of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty.
He renamed the family Windsor in honor of the castle.
Mountbatten is an anglicized version of Battenberg. The Duke of Edinburgh's mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg, but during the First World War the family decided to change their name to Mountbatten, again to avoid increasing anti-German sentiment.
The double name was a concession to the Duke of Edinburgh, who is said to have complained that his children would not bear his name.
What happens next?
Historians tell the BBC that Andrew will remain excluded from royal public life.
He is no longer invited to royal public events, and his recent appearances have been limited to private, family events such as funerals or wakes.
The fiasco will continue to haunt the royal family, says historian and author Andrew Lowney.
“They're finally getting ahead of themselves, but it's not over yet,” Lowney told the BBC.
The palace is “finally taking some decisive action” but it “will not completely calm public concerns.”
Campaigners against the monarchy say there needs to be a wider investigation into what the royal family may have known about Prince Andrew's links to Epstein.
“It's not just about family. This is not a personal matter,” says Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic.
What led to this?
Andrew's connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are at the center of this latest announcement.
Pressure has mounted in recent weeks on the monarchy to resolve the issue of Charles' brother after the king was criticized by a protester earlier this week.
Although Andrew denies the allegations, the royal family believes there were “serious failings” in his conduct.
Earlier this month, emails from 2011 resurfaced showing Andrew communicating with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein months after he said their friendship was over.
In her posthumous memoir, Nobody's Girl, Virginia Giuffre repeated allegations that she had sex with Andrew three times as a teenager – claims he has always denied.
