Readers of the national press may have noticed some reportage about the difficulty of stripping Andrew, Duke of York, of his titles. Most of it is hogwash, according to no less an authority than Professor Graham Zellick KC, emeritus professor of law, University of London. In a letter to The Times, the learned professor points out that Andrew’s knighthoods – of the Garter and the Royal Victorian Order – ‘can be removed by the King’s signature on a piece of paper’.
Meanwhile, the HRH honorific and title of prince are just as easily removed by the promulgation of a formal instrument known as letters patent.
‘It is said that removal of his dukedom and subordinate peerages would require an act of parliament,’ Zellick continues. ‘I doubt that is correct as he is not a member of the House of Lords and especially in the case of a royal peerage of first creation with no heirs. It could, in my view, be withdrawn in the same way it was conferred, by new letters patent. The appropriate step would be for the duke to request the removal of the titles and for the King to oblige.’
Sorted, then. Trust a lawyer to cut through the flummery.
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