Mountbatten-Windsor to keep City of London Freedom

Published: 06 March 2026
The English Chronicle Desk
The English Chronicle Online

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will keep one of his few remaining honours after a review determined it could not be removed .

The disgraced former prince received the Freedom of the City of London in 2012 “by virtue of patrimony”, due to his father Prince Philip having been a Freeman .

The City of London Corporation, which governs the Square Mile, said it had considered the rules dictating how a Freedom is given “and the circumstances in which, and procedure by which, it can be removed” .

In an update given to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a spokesperson for the authority confirmed the historic honour cannot be taken back .

The Freedom, which allows its recipients to walk sheep over London Bridge, is typically awarded to individuals nominated by corporation councillors . Mountbatten-Windsor inherited the status as the child of a Freeman and it constitutes a legal right .

The corporation said: “Applications via patrimony are not considered by our elected members. We have carefully considered whether it is possible to remove a Freedom granted by patrimony and understand that we are not able to do so” .

An insider recently explained: “When Andrew was stripped of his royal patronages and ceremonial roles, many people naturally assumed that every remaining distinction linked to his name would follow the same path. There was an expectation that the Freedom of the City of London would quietly be withdrawn as part of that broader reckoning. But once officials began looking closely at the legal framework behind it, they discovered the situation was far more complicated than anyone initially thought” .

As per sources, “This is not a case of the City of London stepping in to shield Andrew or defend his reputation. The difficulty lies in how he received the honor in the first place. Because it was granted through patrimony – effectively inherited through his father rather than awarded through a formal nomination – it carries a different legal status and is horrifically complex to remove. That distinction means the corporation simply does not possess the same powers to revoke it that it would if the Freedom had originally been granted through the standard process” .

Another insider revealed that “Officials examined the regulations line by line to see if there was any provision allowing them to revoke a Freedom granted through patrimony. But the conclusion they reached was that, legally speaking, those awards function almost like inherited rights rather than honors that can be granted or removed at the discretion of the corporation” .

The sources claim that it is very difficult for King Charles’ brother to lose “every remaining distinction” since the rules governing the Freedom of the City were “written centuries ago, in a completely different social and political context. They were never designed to deal with situations like this, where modern public controversy collides with ancient civic traditions” .

The former prince was stripped of his royal titles, styles and honours by King Charles last year after further details of his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein came to light .

In February he was arrested after correspondence in the Epstein Files suggested he may have passed on sensitive trade information, and was released under investigation after spending 11 hours in custody . He has denied any wrongdoing .

Though today largely a ceremonial honour, the Freedom is still awarded to individuals on a regular basis. Sir Lenny Henry and Cate Blanchett are among those to have received the honour in recent years .

The tradition is believed to date back to 1237 and originally gave members of a Guild or Livery the freedom to trade in London . The common belief is the honour was first given in the 1230s, although it was being “presented in some form” even before that .

Laura Miller, the City’s Clerk to the Court of the Chamberlain who conducts ceremonies, has explained: “It’s meant a lot of things over the centuries… The reason it’s stuck around and it’s still here today is it’s always relevant” .

While being a “freeman” originally meant a person who was not the property of a feudal lord, the definition changed over time. In London, it came to mean someone who had been granted the Freedom of the City and was therefore allowed to trade within the Square Mile .

“It gave you the right to own things, to make money, to exist effectively in the City of London,” Ms Miller said. “I always think that cities are made… and really the freemen of the City of London were the people who made the City” .

These days the Freedom of London is more like a “voluntary citizenship” that gives recipients “a sense of belonging” .

There are various routes to become a freeman, with the award open to people of any nationality . Some receive a special nomination because they have made “a very concrete contribution to the cultural life of London” .

Another route to the Freedom of London is by joining one of the City’s 113 Livery companies, some of which have been around for hundreds of years and were created as a way for people in similar trades to work together to survive .

This also means that it is not only celebrities and dignitaries who receive the Freedom, but people from all walks of life, with ceremonies at the Guildhall being a regular occurrence .

“Just last week, I gave the Freedom to a bunch of plumbers,” Ms Miller has said .

The ceremony itself is medieval “in essence”, according to Ms Miller. The candidate is invited to read the Declaration of a Freeman and sign the Freeman’s Declaration Book. A copy of the Freedom is then presented along with a copy of the Rules for the Conduct of Life, which date from the mid-18th Century, with the act sealed with a handshake .

“It’s quite business-like, it’s quite sensible. Your freedom is a legal document – it’s actually underwritten by Magna Carta,” she added .

A number of rights are traditionally associated with freemen—including the right to drive sheep and cattle over London Bridge; the right to use of to a silken rope if hanged and the right to carry a naked sword in public . While sheep have occasionally been driven over London Bridge on special occasions, the rest of these privileges are now effectively symbolic .

The Local Democracy Reporting Service attempted to contact Mountbatten-Windsor’s team for comment and received no response .

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