Andrew’s finally left Royal Lodge – and we’ve just learnt what King Charles really thinks

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has taken his last ride at Royal Lodge after being ordered to leave the Windsor mansion, in the wake of the Epstein scandal.

Under the cover of darkness and in a dramatic moonlight flit, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finally quit his Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor. And it brings to an end one of the most irritating, shameless and unedifying aspects of the 65-year-old ex Duke of York’s response to the Epstein files.

Every day this week fresh revelations, photos and scandals have leaked from these files – including one creepy 2010 email where Andrew told Epstein his dream was to be “a pet in your family!” But after every new sordid Epstein revelation, Andrew would be seen almost carefree out and about on horseback riding around his sprawling, 31-room Royal Lodge pile.

And it appears the sight of his last ride on Monday was enough for King Charles and those running the Crown Estate property to – almost a week ahead of time – order Andrew immediately out.

A royal source said: “The sight of him plastered on the front pages out riding his horse or driving in his car past photographers in Windsor, amid the continued dripping poison of the Epstein files was just too much.

“He had to be removed from the public eye. Charles said enough was enough and the message was conveyed to Andrew that it was time for him to head to Norfolk immediately.”

And it’s a telling and worrying sign for the former prince, as it proves once and for all that King Charles wants his brother out of the way, out of sight and out of mind – and to hell with what Andrew wants.

Right now Andrew is nursing his wounded pride in the smaller Wood Farm property on the King’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, while his nearby permanent home Marsh Farm is undergoing renovations.

Wood Farm was where King George V and Queen Mary sent their youngest son Prince John, who suffered from epileptic seizures, to reside out of the public gaze in 1917.

He tended to a garden alongside a flock of chickens, occasionally receiving his grandmother Queen Alexandra as a visitor before his death in 1919.

Even the chickens won’t want to be pictured with Andrew right now.

Now as he sits and stews at the five-bedroom cottage and enjoys its views of the sea, he can maybe reflect on where it all went so badly wrong – and what options he has now.

He’s got so few, you could write them all down on the back of a postage stamp.

A removals van leaves Royal Lodge (Image: Getty)

Pressure has been building on Andrew to give evidence in the US over his relationship with the paedophile US financier. He has always denied any wrongdoing – but he cannot bat the Department of Justice away forever.

With every new batch of Epstein emails, he is moving inextricably towards having to give evidence. This will not go away. His name appears in the 3.5 million documents several hundred times.

Sources close to the Royal Family stress that although Andrew’s poor judgement needed sanction, he does remain a member of the family and on a personal level there is a duty of care owed to him – hence the provision of a home on the Sandringham Estate funded by the King.

But how stretched that ‘duty of care’ can get before it snaps and King Charles orders Andrew to give evidence, no-one yet knows.