Prince Andrew "lobbied hard" to try and prevent Charles from becoming King, a new royal biography claims. The Duke of York made headlines last week after he was allowed to wear his military uniform during a vigil for the late Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Hall.
King Charles gave his brother permission to wear the ensemble while paying his respects to the monarch lying in state, however he was ultimately barred from wearing it during the Queen's state funeral. The 62-year-old, who is no longer a working royal, was also forced to wear civilian clothes as he joined the procession for his late mother to Westminster Hall last Wednesday.
Prince Andrew was stripped of all his honorary military roles, including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, by the Queen in January and ordered to give up his HRH title. However, he kept his rank as a Vice Admiral and his medals could be seen pinned onto his suit during the monarch's funeral, the Mirror reports.
Now, an explosive new biography has revealed how Andrew didn't want Charles to be king. Charles and Andrew rarely got on well together, except for a short period while they were both married, and Camilla caused evident fractions within the family.
The uneasy relationship between now-King Charles and Andrew is not uncommon - there is usually contention and rifts between the first and second in the line of succession. The pair are also said to have different personalities, values and approaches to life and don't always share the same viewpoint.
Prince Andrew was one of several whom the late sovereign asked for advice around Charles marrying Camilla. An abridged extract from ‘Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: From Outcast to Queen Consort’, shared by The Telegraph, showed how a senior insider told the author, Angela Levin, that Andrew tried to persuade the Queen to block Charles marrying Camilla by being "quite poisonous, mean, unhelpful and very nasty about Camilla".
The same royal source added that when Diana was alive, through her friendship with Andrew’s wife Sarah, she "plotted with Andrew to try to push Prince Charles aside" so that Andrew could become Regent to Prince William, who at the time was a teenager. It meant Andrew "lobbied hard" with the hope that it would mean Charles would not become king when his mother died, and that William would wear the crown instead.
His behaviour was said to be "very, very negative and extremely unpleasant" to the Queen, who disagreed with him, and it marked a rare occasion where Andrew didn't get what he wanted. It's doubtful, as a result, whether Prince Andrew has ever been forgiven due to his continued hostility towards Camilla.
Prince Andrew, a former Royal Navy officer who served in the Falklands War, stepped down as an active member of the Firm following a disastrous interview on BBC Newsnight in late 2019. During the high profile chat with Emily Maitlis, he refused to voice regret over his friendship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
And earlier this year, he paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case to Ms Giuffre, who he previously claimed never to have met.
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