As noted in the link with some scrolling he’s purportedly being settled in a residence on the royal (but privately held) estate of Sandringham in Norfolk and the King is apparently going to cover his living expenses there. So it’s a very pleasant disgrace that would be a nice step up for me ( if it’s Wood Farm as linked above, we’re talking a ‘farm house’ that’s a ‘five bedroom cottage’), but is an abject humiliation for jet-setting Andrew.
Hehe, I just looked up where Sandringham is located, and it looks like land’s end. At least 2.5 hours away from London, perfectly located for a party-loving, jet set ex-Prince.
That or a different article that I read implied that Fergie will live elsewhere. Could she move in with him or is a five bedroom cottage too close quarters?
Presumably his daughters still get to be Princesses and are still inner circle.
They still have their titles but aren’t “working royals” with funding from the Sovereign Grant - they both have their own careers and husbands with theirs, plus family trust funds. Whether they’re on the family Christmas list, I wouldn’t know
beatrice and eugenie are favourites of william and harry. hopefully they will weather the storm their father has created.
I just read that they will keep their titles.
nm. .
Royal downsizing aside Beatrice and Eugenie may have to be called perform the occasional duty like serving as a Counselor of State on occasion. There’s a shortage of adult royals right now and Anne & Edward need backups.
What exactly does a Counselor of State do?
They are senior members of the royal family to whom the monarch can delegate most royal functions, so that those functions can be discharged if the monarch is ill or out of the country.
The counsellors are the monarch’s spouse, if any, and the first four people in the line of succession who are over 21 (and who are British subjects), plus other members of the family who may be added from time to time. Currently the first four people who are over 21 are William, Harry, Andrew, Princess Beatrice and, obviously, the king is not going to delegate any functions to two of those. The Queen is also a counsellor of state but if the King is out of the country she is quite likely to be too, and if the King is ill it’s not ideal for her to have to deal with ceremonial business. So there’s a definite shortage. Anne and Edward have been added to the list, but Anne is 75 and so her availablity in a crisis might be limited.
Harry can be excluded from the position of counsellor of state when he’s not in the UK, which is most of the time.
The legislation requires domicile in the UK, not presence or residence in the UK. And Buckingham Palace evidently still considers Harry to be domiciled in the UK; they list him as one of the counsellors of state.
But it’s unlikely that any counsellor of state who was outside the country would be called upon to act. And it’s unlikely that Harry would be called upon to act even at a time when he was within the UK.
So, the current counsellors who are realistically available are Camilla, William, Beatrice, Anne and Edward. Two of the five are already in their 70s, and it’s forseeable that age and/or infirmity could limit their ability to act. One, Beatrice, is not a working royal and might not have the training or experience that could be considered desirable.
No, the domicile requirement is for the regent, under s. 3(2). A regent must be domiciled in the UK.
The provision for counsellor of state allows the monarch to exclude anyone who is likely to be absent from the UK during the time that counsellors of state may be required to act. Domicile is not a consideration.
See s. 6(2), proviso:
Provided that, if it appears to the Sovereign that any person who, in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this subsection, would be required to be included among the Counsellors of State to whom royal functions are to be delegated, is absent from the United Kingdom or intends to be so absent during the whole or any part of the period of such delegation, the Letters Patent may make provision for excepting that person from among the number of Counsellors of State during the period of such absence.
Recently participated in a Threads conversation wherein dozens of Canadians absolutely insisted Canada doesn’t have a King.
It was depressing.
Were they digging in a field, talking about being an autonomous collective, and they take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week?
I didn’t vote for him. But then, I’m not Canadian.
There you go again, bringing class into it.
I’m pretty sure Beatrice and Eugenie are both capable of signing documents placed in front of them or saying “Agreed” after a Privy Councilor reads off a batch of orders-in-council.
But I’d imagine their conversations with new and departing ambassadors, senior military officers, bishops and so on might be a bit stilted. Though wearing a pretzel hat might be an ice-breaker.
Heh. A friend of mine just referred to “the Andrew formerly known as Prince.”