As each day passed over the last little while, there was a growing sense that something had to give in the circumstances surrounding the man who will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

In a move with little — if any — royal precedent, Buckingham Palace said Thursday that King Charles has started the formal process to strip his younger brother of his title of prince.

Andrew, 65, is also being evicted from the 30-room mansion he leases from the Crown Estate near Windsor Castle and relocating to one of the King’s private estates in the fallout from the scandal and controversy around his association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

That controversy had become a crisis for the Royal Family. In Charles’s handling of it — particularly Thursday’s statement regarding Andrew’s titles and housing — there could be signals of the kind of monarchy the King is hoping to lead.

“This is one of the most significant events for the monarchy in the 21st century,” said Justin Vovk, a royal historian and member of the advisory board of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada. “It sends very clear signals that the reign of King Charles wants to be one of modernization and adapting to developing circumstances."

Andrew had stepped back from official royal duties after his disastrous BBC interview in 2019 regarding his friendship with Epstein. Andrew, who has continued to deny all allegations against him, ha d also agreed to settle a lawsuit in which he was accused of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre.

The front pages of most of Britain's national newspapers are pictured in a spread created in London on Friday. They are dominated by stories about Andrew Mountbatten Windsor being stripped of his title of prince. (Rhianna Chadwick/AFP/Getty Images)

Recently published excerpts from a posthumous boo k by Giuffre accused Andrew of being “entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright."

Other reports had emerged recently that he told Epstein in an email “we are in this together” after a photo of the r