Rex Jory: Royals try to wipe Prince Andrew from history

Certain people high up within the royal family are trying to wipe Prince Andrew’s memory away, but history has shown that may not be a good idea, writes Rex Jory.

The British Royal family is slowly turning the Queen’s second son, Prince Andrew, into the amazing disappearing man. The man who never was.

He is quietly being stripped of his titles, responsibilities, social standing, public appearances, personality and value.

Soon there will be nothing left of Andrew but his memory.

Before his dubious dealings with US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein Prince Andrew was a prominent and highly decorated member of the royal household.

He was ninth in line of succession to the throne, held a string of titles including the Duke of York and was addressed as His Royal Highness.

Prince Andrew served in the Falklands War before his recent downfall. Picture: AFP

Prince Andrew, a veteran of the Falklands War, also had several high-ranking, if ceremonial, military commands and a swath of honorary charity and community positions. In a sense his value to the royal family, or indeed Britain and the Commonwealth, was informal and ritualistic.

There were plenty of royals above him in the pecking order of importance. He filled in when he was required, as he was born to do.

One by one his titles and responsibilities have been cherrypicked from his portfolio, like rotting fruit from a tree.

Even the good people of York want Andrew stripped of his title as the Duke of the city.

Andrew has been left with little more standing than a common man.

Some say Andrew has ruibed Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee year. Picture: AFP

Many people in Britain despise him because of the allegations made against him about child abuse. He has, they argue, ruined Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee year, marking 70 years as Queen.

Andrew has become a sort of royal ghost, left to haunt some of the grandest houses in Britain with nothing to do and few people to speak to.

He has become the invisible man. An embarrassment to his family and his country. A wart on the face of the monarchy.

But it is futile to try and exile Andrew.

With every punishment, his status as a figure of curiosity grows, not withers.

More than 85 years ago the royal family tried to do much the same thing to King Edward VIII when he declared his intention to marry US divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson.

The former King Edward VIII was exiled by the royals 85 years ago when he married American-born divorcee Wallis Simpson. Picture: AFP

The couple were stripped of many titles and responsibilities, as well as status, and exiled to France. He took the title Duke of Windsor and retained the right to be called his highness.

Yet, of all royal figures in the past century, he remains one of the most intriguing and written about.

It is a folly to try and make someone invisible. Out of sight does not mean out of mind.

We should all want to expunge German wartime chancellor Adolf Hitler from our memories, yet his atrocities command more television programs and books than almost any person in the past 80 years.

Mass murderer Martin Bryant, who shot dead 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996.

In 1996 Martin Bryant killed 35 people at Port Arthur. He has been in prison ever since – removed from public view but not forgotten.

The treatment of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, illustrates the stupidity and futility of the woke movement, which is trying to erase figures from the past because of their behaviour in another era.

Removing the statue of Cecil Rhodes from the grounds of Oxford University will not right the perceived racial wrongs he committed 150 years ago.

If anything, calls for it to happen have intensified interest in Rhodes’ achievements.

There are dozens of examples of statues of historical figures being removed.

Even the statue of Captain James Cook in Sydney has been defaced because some claim he acted improperly.

Prince Andrew’s troubles began when he associated with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Picture: Supplied

Contemporary standards are being wrongly and unfairly used to judge his actions 250 years ago.

I am in no way defending Prince Andrew and what he did in association with Epstein. Child abuse in whatever form is reprehensible.

I am merely pointing out the hopelessness and futility of trying to make Prince Andrew disappear.

When historians fossick around the embers of the current Elizabethan era, Prince Andrew will be one of the most fascinating figures.