Why is this picture such a headache for Charles? Richard Eden explains

Why IS this photograph of Andrew such a headache for King Charles? And what has Princess Anne got to do with it? The Mail’s Richard Eden explains…

If a picture speaks a thousand words then recent photographs showing Prince Edward enjoying a leisurely horse ride alongside older brother Prince Andrew tell us a great deal.

It is, according to the Mail’s Richard Eden, a show of solidarity from the Duke of Edinburgh for his disgraced older brother as he battles to keep on to his royal home – a battle in which his sister, The Princess Royal, is also said to have shown her support for her younger sibling.

Prince Edward’s agreement to ride with Prince Andrew – and be seen riding – is a show of support, suggests Richard Eden 

Princess Anne, seen here at Trooping the Colour, is a person of growing importance within the Royal Family. But she, too, is thought to back her brother Prince Andrew over the question of whether or not he should move from Royal Lodge

The Mail’s Diary Editor, Richard Eden, told Palace Confidential that family support for Prince Andrew will make it hard for elder brother King Charles to force him from Royal Lodge

Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park has been home to Prince Andrew for two decades. It was formerly the home of his grandmother, the late Queen Mother

The alliance is a headache for King Charles, who reportedly wants the Duke to vacate Royal Lodge, the 30 room property he shares with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and move into Frogmore Cottage, the smaller home previously occupied by Sussexes. 

Prince Andrew is adamant that he should be entitled to remain permanently in his home of twenty years – a view which Richard Eden believes is shared by his siblings and underlined by the decision by Prince Edward to be pictured riding alongside his 63-year-old brother in Windsor Great Park last week ahead of the weekend’s Trooping the Colour ceremony. 

Speaking to Palace Confidential, he said:  ‘What’s important is that they knew they were going to be photographed – they often are when they’re out in this public place, and I think it’s Edward showing his solidarity with his brother,’ he says. ‘We know that Princess Anne, his sister, is sympathetic to Andrew too, so for me it really does illustrate the great problem the King would have if he did try to force anything on Andrew.’

The King’s situation is not helped, Eden believes, by the fact that Charles must flex his muscles against a sibling alongside whom he has grown up.

‘It’s such a different situation to how it was with Queen Elizabeth – she was the mother she could tell the children to do something, and they would have to protect that,’ he says. ‘When it’s one sibling against the other it’s quite a different dynamic.’

Royal Lodge is due south of Windsor Castle and sits in Windsor Great Park rather than on the home estate

A happy family snap taken before Christmas last year. Although Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie now have their own families, they are said to regard Royal Lodge as ‘home’

There seems little doubt that the situation around Royal Lodge is reaching a critical point: last week, it was reported that Andrew was even refusing to move out while roof repairs were taking place for fear that he would be locked out and unable to return.

‘It is a sad reflection of how things are and how precarious the situation is about Andrew’s housing,’ as Eden puts it. ’I can’t believe relations between Prince Andrew and his brother King Charles are so bad that he kind of fears Charles bringing the workmen in immediately to get rid of him.’ 

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