Andrew and Elizabeth, alone against all

HASWith its narrow, winding streets and numerous half-timbered houses grouped around its splendid 13th century Gothic cathedral^and century, the medieval city of York exudes tranquility. Nothing ever happens in this average town in the north of England. The life of the northern diocese of the Church of England is dominated by the minister, the pub, the worship of horses and dogs as well as the bourgeois balls and the meetings of the Rotary Club. At least until April 27.

That day, the town councilors unanimously decided to withdraw Prince Andrew’s honorary title of “Freedom of York”. In the process, the city council asked that the second son of Elizabeth II be deprived of his title of Duke of York, granted by his mother in 1986 on the occasion of…