Has any member of the British Royal Family ever been arrested before?
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest revives an old constitutional question about how far royal status reaches.
The arrest on Thursday of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York, on suspicion of misconduct in public office has stirred a question rarely discussed outside royal trivia: has a member of Britain’s royal family ever been arrested before? Let’s take a look…
In the context of modern Britain, the answer is startlingly simple: no senior working royal has been formally arrested – whether he is to be charged is another matter – in modern times prior to Andrew. His 2026 arrest appears to be an unprecedented moment in the constitutional history of the contemporary monarchy. (It’s worth clarifying here that while he is no longer a royal – he became a commoner when the King removed his right to be a prince and his dukedom after the Epstein connections – he is still in the line of succession as part of the family).
But a deeper look at both recent decades and earlier centuries shows that royals have at times faced the criminal justice system – albeit in very different ways.
Contemporary British monarchy
In the early 2000s, Princess Anne, aka the Princess Royal, became the most legally exposed member of the contemporary royal family before Andrew. In 2001 she was convicted of speeding after being stopped by police, and in 2002 she pleaded guilty under the Dangerous Dogs Act after her dog attacked children in Windsor Great Park. She was fined on both occasions. Although these were convictions rather than high-profile arrests, they remain rare examples of a senior royal being subjected to normal criminal proceedings in UK courts.
Other episodes involving police contact - such as newspaper stories about social-event “arrests” of royals – have often been informal encounters that did not lead to formal charges.
Historical British monarchy
Going further back in history, the idea of a royal being arrested would have sounded more familiar. In the 16th century, for example, Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, was arrested, imprisoned in the Tower of London, put on trial for treason and executed in 1536.
In the 17th century, Parliament’s forces detained King Charles I during the civil war; he was tried and executed in 1649, an extraordinary example of a reigning monarch brought before a court. Similarly, Mary, Queen of Scots spent years imprisoned before her execution on charges of plotting against Queen Elizabeth I.
Such episodes, however, occurred in eras when monarchs wielded personal political power and legal norms were very different. Modern British constitutional practice treats the reigning sovereign as immune from prosecution, but other members of the royal family are subject to the ordinary law of the land.
So while there are some examples of crimes being committed by royals and police responses, Andrew’s arrest this week is truly remarkable in a modern context. This is not something that goes into the gossip columns or simply used as tabloid fodder. This could potentially have a profound impact on the King, his brother, and the British monarchy.
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