An immense step has now been taken towards throwing out centuries of privilege and apparent impunity, with the jaw-dropping arrest of King Charles’ brother on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
The former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, has often enjoyed lavish and unrestrained birthday parties, some of them in palaces and others at exclusive ski resorts. This year, however, on his 66th birthday, he was arrested at his Wood Farm bolthole on the King’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
According to British media, eight unmarked vehicles carrying plain-clothed police officers arrived shortly after 8am on Thursday, UK time. Fifty minutes later, three cars, including a Range Rover thought to be Mountbatten-Windsor’s, left the estate by the back roads.
Soon after, Thames Valley Police put out a statement that they had arrested a man in his 60s from Norfolk and were searching addresses there and also Berkshire, where the former prince lived for many years at Royal Lodge near Windsor before being banished to the countryside.
King Charles was apparently not told of the impending arrest, but in a statement a few hours later said the law had to take its course and what was about to happen was the "full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities". He pledged the Royal Family’s wholehearted co-operation.
In recent months, the toxic and wicked behaviour of many highly placed and influential men on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean has been laid bare by the millions of documents released from the files of dead paedophile, sex trafficker and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor is among those who feature.
The car-crash BBC interview with Mountbatten-Windsor about the former prince’s links with Epstein and the allegations of sexual assault of Virginia Giuffre took place more than six years ago, but it is only in the last few weeks that the case against the former prince has really snowballed, with emails apparently showing that while he was a UK government trade envoy he shared sensitive financial details of national importance with Epstein.
It seems unfair in the extreme that the focus of attention is not on resolving the claims of the many hundreds of victims of the awful sex crimes which Epstein and his jailed co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell facilitated across a web of political and powerful men. Instead, the focus is on alleged financial wrongdoings.
He was discharged from a local police station after almost 12 hours of questioning, the authorities saying in a statement that Mountbatten-Windsor remained under investigation.
At this stage he has not been charged with anything, and continues to deny any illegal behaviour.
It is about time he was asked to formally answer questions. It has been a very long time coming.
We can allow ourselves a touch of schadenfreude that he was arrested. It gives us faith in justice, that nobody can act as if they are above the law, and reminds us the royals are, in actual fact, no better than anyone else — and in this case, worse.
The effects of this on the King and the future of the Royal Family are hard to predict. It could go either way.
King Charles’ steady distancing from his brother, and the stripping of Mountbatten-Windsor’s princely and other titles, may act in royalty’s favour, showing the public they are equally horrified by what has been going on.
Or, it could be seen as too little, too late, that the royals are an expensive encumbrance that have been allowed to get away with almost whatever they want because of their birthright. The British may think, do we really need them any more?
Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump has told media the arrest was "a very sad thing", and that only he can say that because he has been "totally exonerated".
Others in the US are less sure and see the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor as the start of a more concerted push for justice there too.
