While Andrew must cover the cost of maintenance, including exterior and interior painting over the years, he need never pay a second peppercorn in rent.
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Andrew lives at the home with his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, under the lease he signed with the Crown Estate in 2003. He took on the house after it had been used by his grandmother, Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, for five decades.
He cannot sell the home or gain any benefit from its increase in value over time, but the lease can be transferred to Ferguson or their daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, upon his death.
King Charles III has tried to end the lease and move his brother out of the lodge, according to several royal correspondents for major media outlets, but the terms were not easily revoked.
The Crown Estate would have to pay Andrew about £500,000 in compensation to cancel the lease. This would be a decision for the government because the Crown Estate is not at the King’s direction. (It collects revenue for the state and reports to parliament as an independent agency.)
A protest against Prince Andrew at the gates of Royal Lodge this week.Credit: Getty Images
There is some talk of ending the generous lease. “It’s about time Prince Andrew took himself off to live in private and make his own way in life,” said Robert Jenrick, a senior Conservative MP, to the BBC. Nobody on the Labour benches has been that blunt.
Some also think that last Friday’s action on Andrew’s titles was inadequate. The statement from Andrew, after consultation with the King and other members of the royal family, promised to go further than previous steps. “I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me,” he said.
But this did not extinguish Andrew’s titles – he simply agreed not to use them. He remains the Duke of York. With more stories about him emerging over the past four days, there are calls to remove this title.
About a dozen MPs are speaking up for a vote in parliament to extinguish Andrew’s formal rank, something that has not been done since the passage of the Titles Deprivation Act in 1917, when parliament cancelled the English titles of several German descendants of Queen Victoria.
There is also the idea of finding some way to stop Andrew being called a prince. This is even more challenging because the rules were set out in letters patent in 1917 and confirmed by Queen Elizabeth in 2012.
Princess Margaret with Lord Snowden inside Royal Lodge in 1960.Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
Under this law, the title of prince or princess goes to the children of a monarch, as well as others, in a detailed stipulation. Removing Andrew as a prince would require an act of parliament that singles him out by name.
The scandal surrounding Andrew is not easing. The memoir by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, with her account of sex with Andrew when she was 17 and in the pay of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has arrived in bookstores and sets out the case against the prince in detail.
Then-princess Elizabeth with Princess Margaret at Royal Lodge in 1936.Credit: Camera Press
He has always denied the allegations and repeated this in a statement last week.
For now, Andrew is likely to stay at Royal Lodge. The only way he can be removed is if the government decides to pay the cost of cancelling the lease and he agrees to the terms of his departure.
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Andrew can remain in the countryside near Windsor Castle. He will be about 10 kilometres from royal family members when they visit. For some of them, that is still too close for comfort.
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