The siege of ROYAL LODGE

King Charles seems determined to evict his younger brother, but Prince Andrew wont go down without a fight

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It's an ongoing saga that has rumbled on throughout 2024 like a juicy soap storyline. We're talking, of course, about Prince Andrew's tenure of Royal Lodge. Family tensions, scandal and sibling rivalry bubble around the palatial Georgian mansion of the disgraced prince has called home since the early noughties.

Now his tenancy is under siege, with the King reportedly trying to oust his brother from the 30-room property since August 2023.

The history

The 98-acre Royal Lodge is tucked away in a woody nook on the Windsor Estate in Berkshire. King George IV used it as a hunting lodge when he took the throne in 1820. In 1932, the future King George VI took over the property with his wife, Elizabeth. It was their private country house, and when George VI died in 1952, the Queen Mother continued to spend her weekends at Royal Lodge until her death in 2002.

The following year, Prince Andrew moved in, signing a 75-year lease with the Crown Estate, which included a notional rent of £260,000 a year. The Duke of York, 64, currently lives in the £30m property with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and has refused all requests to move into the smaller Frogmore Cottage, nearly three miles away.

Frogmore scandals