On Wednesday, members of the British royal family gathered in Windsor, and a few hours later, the Queen's second son, Prince Andrew, got into a car and left the palace in a very dignified atmosphere.
This day produced two wonderful pieces of good news: First, Prince Andrew failed to dismiss the sexual assault allegations and will go to the United States to face the law!
Second, the Queen completely abandoned Andrew, removing him from his title of nobility and all royal patronage. The day when the scum prince was beaten as a "commoner" has finally come!
Abandoned by the Queen as a "commoner"
Since 2019, Andrew has been caught in a wave of investigations and public opinion crises because he is suspected of "enjoying" the illegal underage sex transaction of American billionaire Epstein.
Victim Giuffre was forced into a sexual assault by Andrew 3 times at the age of 17 for such a transaction and filed a civil lawsuit for sex crimes in court.
At that time, although Andrew was suspended from public office by the queen and faded out of the core royal circle, he still had a strong sense of luck.
He applied to a U.S. court to dismiss the victim, Giuffre, while expecting his mother, Elizabeth II, to turn her back.
Fantasizing about escaping trial is because Andrew knows that Giuffre had settled with Epstein out of court in 2009 and received a settlement payment of $500,000, and Epstein's settlement agreement was that Giuffre would not be able to prosecute the people involved in the incident in the future.
Andrew had thought that by taking advantage of this clause, he would be able to slip away. But on Wednesday, a judge in a New York court made it clear that the 2009 out-of-court settlement between Giuffre and Epstein was not directly related to the legal dispute between Giuffre and Andrew, and that the terms of the settlement could not be arbitrarily misappropriated.
This means that Andrew's dying struggle is not working, and Giuffre's civil lawsuit will continue to advance. Prince Andrew was likely to be questioned for 7 hours in front of court cameras. Awkward issues such as foul-smelling private lives and detailed private information will also be made public along with the trial.
As a member of the royal family committing crimes in a foreign country, being summoned by the court, or a sex scandal, this level of shame is definitely not too much to say that it is "unfortunate at home". It can be concluded that whatever the outcome of the verdict is, the trial will cause great damage to the face of the British Royal Family.
Although the Queen's attitude towards Andrew had been ambiguous, she was well aware that her ultimate task was to protect the royal family and the monarchy, and that self-preservation was more important than protecting her calves.
The afternoon before yesterday, Buckingham Palace issued a statement announcing that the Queen had decided to expel Andrew from the royal family. The statement mentioned that there are three main points of punishment for Andrew:
1. Stripped of the title of "Royal Highness" HRH and presented to court as a private civilian
(2) Deprivation of all honorary posts in the military
3. Reclaim all patron status
The most important one is that Andrew's title of "Royal Highness" (HRH) is stripped away. This means that he can no longer use the title in any form in the public domain. For Andrew, it was a big blow.
Andrew is the fifth member of the royal family to recently lose the HRH title. The previous Princess Diana and Andrew's ex-wife, Mrs. Sarah, both lost their titles due to divorce, which is a more routine operation. The revocation of Meghan and Harry's titles is part of their "Brexit" agreement and is also the result of deliberations.
Even the Queen's most hated uncle, Edward VIII, was not revoked after he left the throne and ran to France. So for Andrew, it was a punishment of utter shame.
He was born with the title as the Queen's son and has enjoyed the respect and preferential treatment of senior royals for 61 years.
Now his only title worthy of superiority is gone, all public office has been removed, and he must use civilian status in court duels.
Of course, the Queen still gave Andrew a little face. Although he was stripped of his title, he was still called "His Royal Highness the Prince" in the royal palace.
The royal family had to salute members of a higher rank than himself, and if Andrew was treated as a commoner at home, he had to bow to other HRHs, including the sons and daughters of William's family. Retaining Andrew's right to use the title at home, presumably because members of the royal family do not want to be too embarrassed.
Removing Andrew from all positions in the British Army was also a humiliating punishment. Andrew was advertised as the first member of the royal family to fight on the front line in half a century, earning a lot of favors. For himself, the position of the army was the highest honor.
When the sexual assault case first fermented in 2019, the queen shelved his military position, but never completely revoked it. This caused more than 150 British veterans to write a joint letter to the Queen expressing dissatisfaction, demanding that Andrew be kicked out of the army and not damage their image.
Finally, the day before yesterday, Andrew's seven honorary military positions will be revoked, including the position of grenadine guard, the most gold-rich, the oldest and most emblematic regiment of the British Army.
For this reason, the British people are one word: cool! The parliamentarian in charge of defence in the House of Commons also made a point of expressing his delight at Andrew's expulsion from the military, which shows how unpopular he is.
At present, Andrew can only retain the naval rank he personally served in exchange, anyway, he has long been discharged, the rank is only commemorative, the impact is not large.
Although many netizens feel that these punishments are still too light, royal experts believe that this is the limit of what the queen can do.
Since Andrew was her favorite child, at first it was thought that the queen would only hide Andrew at best.
But now the title has also been withdrawn, the military position is gone, the status of the royal patron has also been cancelled, except that the mother-child relationship has not been severed, basically no different from sweeping out the house.
Some media believe that this is not the old lady's idea alone, and both Charles and William have played a great role in promoting the exile of Andrew.
It is said that on the day that the New York court rejected Andrew's request, Charles called the Queen, and William went directly to Windsor to discuss Andrew's future with the Queen.
After the two discussed with the Queen, Andrew was summoned to a 90-minute interview. From Andrew's posture as a private lawyer on appointments shows that he anticipates his abandonment.
The royal family eventually shut an andrew Andrew's lawyer on the grounds of private conversation. By the time Andrew came out of the gates of Windsor Castle, everyone knew that his becoming an outcast of the royal family was a foregone conclusion.
However, as an audience, we can't applaud too early. The queen's punishment for Andrew was an ethical condemnation of his actions, and what Andrew really had to face was the judgment of the law.
Pure prison or bankruptcy to choose one or the other?
This fall, Andrew's sexual assault case will officially begin trials. For Andrew, his path is basically blocked.
Faced with the allegations of the victim, Giuffre, he had only two equally bad options:
1. Take the risk of defending yourself in court, stating the privacy related to the case, accepting public humiliation from the public, and the possibility of losing.
2. Try to make Giuffre accept out-of-court settlement and compensate a huge settlement fee, but such behavior basically confirms his guilt and cannot be washed away for a lifetime.
Civil courts will not force Andrew to appear in the United States, and Andrew could theoretically get his lawyer to attend on his behalf, escaping the embarrassment of being "publicly executed" when testifying in court.
But experts believe that this will make Andrew more apathetic, which will lead to further discredit.
Given his poor ability to make up nonsense, the courtroom may be full of loopholes
If he did attend the scene, he lost the civil case. In the next step, plaintiff Giuffre is likely to file criminal proceedings. If you lose a civil lawsuit and lose money, if you lose a criminal case, you are likely to go to jail.
Moreover, U.S. law provides that those accused of a criminal offense sentenced to more than 12 months in prison are extradited to the United States. If he really got to this point, Britain would not be able to do his safe haven.
At present, some media believe that Andrew is considering an out-of-court settlement. Recently he was found to have settled a debt with rouvre, a wealthy French businessman.
Andrew bought a ski villa from Rouvre in installments in 2014, but the last installment of £6.6 million was delayed.
The media believes that Andrew is now in a hurry to pay the money, most likely so that he can sell the house immediately and exchange it for 18 million pounds in cash. This makes it easier to negotiate a settlement with Giuffre and pay compensation.
The Sun believes Andrew will have to come up with at least £10 million to have any hope of giving Giuffre a willingness to settle out of court. But legal experts in the UK believe Giuffre is unlikely to opt for out-of-court mediation.
Rich people like Andrew often self-righteously believe that they can buy their own satisfactory results with money.
But he didn't understand, Giuffre chose to sue, just to let people like him be exposed, just to make him lose face.
Exposing the disgusting things he's done to the public is much cooler than getting a sum of money to swallow. Legal experts say Giuffre has experienced a lot of difficulties since she sued, and she didn't come for money from the beginning, so It was difficult for Andrew to bribe her with money.
What's more, he doesn't have much money now. After being completely abandoned by the British royal family, the Queen will certainly not fund him, and Andrew will face huge compensation, lawyer fees, and he will not be able to survive for long.
Andrew, who was born as a prince, when the privilege of identity and the privilege of money are not there, what kind of rampant capital is there? Waiting for judgment is his fate as a traitor...