The truth about the bust-up that’s the talk of Palace corridors: How Prince Andrew is livid because Charles insists Beatrice and Eugenie don’t deserve full-time royal status

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At a time in life when, like any great-grandmother, she is entitled to gaze down the generations with pleasure and satisfaction, the Queen finds herself presiding over an upsetting family squabble.

It involves her granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie and an increasingly sticky question — one that Palace courtiers hoped had long gone away. Namely, should the two Princesses carry out formal royal duties?

The issue has bitterly divided their father, Prince Andrew, from his elder brother, Prince Charles. Andrew is outraged that his daughters, the only two ‘blood princesses’ of their generation, have been sidelined in such a high-handed manner.

Prince Andrew (left) and Prince Charles (right) are bitterly divided over whether Andrew's daughters Beatrice and Eugenie should have formal royal duties

For his part, Charles considers his nieces surplus to requirements in a slimmed-down, modern monarchy.

Tensions have reached such a level that this week it was reported that Andrew had written to his mother asking her to intervene on behalf of the girls, who have a close relationship with her, often dropping in for tea with their granny at Windsor Castle.

For all the sisters’ seemingly endless holidays around the world — which have attracted much criticism and even mockery — Prince Andrew believes that the older they get, the more they feel a need to contribute to the Royal Family’s public duties.

Currently, all we see semi-officially of Beatrice, 28, and Eugenie, 26, are rare outings accompanying their father, or when they join the family at royal events such as Buckingham Palace garden parties and receptions. 

Prince Andrew believes that the older Beatrice (right) and Eugenie (left) get, the more they feel a need to contribute to the Royal Family’s public duties

So could the girls, even now, be asked to join the exclusive roster of senior royals carrying out official engagements?

The truth is, it seems unlikely. For whatever Prince Andrew may have said to his mother, Charles remains intransigent. 

The latter’s view, according to courtiers, is that while the Princesses ‘should, of course, be treated properly, as befits their royal status, they cannot have a public role and cannot be taxpayer-funded’.

‘He is quite clear on that,’ one courtier stresses.

The issue highlights a stark difference in attitudes among the Royal Family. 

Of course, for years Andrew’s sister, Princess Anne, has made sure her own untitled children, Zara and Peter, avoid the royal round and pursue jobs and interests in the real world. 

Yet Andrew is desperate for his daughters to live lives of royal rank and position.

Some say his exasperation on their behalf mirrors his own somewhat overblown sense of entitlement and belief in his elevated royal status.

(For more than 20 years, until the birth of Prince William, he was heir-in-line to the throne behind Charles. He has now slipped to sixth in the line of succession.)

 Prince Andrew has written to his mother this week about the girls but it is believed her eldest son Charles remains intransigen

But what cannot be overlooked is the Princesses’ own desire to take up official roles in ‘the Firm’.

Five years ago, when she was 23 and had just graduated from London University’s Goldsmiths College with a 2:1 degree in history and the history of ideas, Beatrice’s mind was already turning towards an official royal life.

Mindful of the fact that Prince Charles had just taken over as de facto ‘chief executive’ of the Royal Family — the Queen was then 85 — Beatrice broached the question with her cousin, William.

An intelligent girl, she asked him what she could do to help during the Queen’s approaching Diamond Jubilee year. She wanted to be involved.

The sisters holidays have attracted much criticism but the girls say they would prefer a royal role 

But she heard nothing back and is understood to have been very disappointed. Neither she nor Eugenie was given any significant role during the celebrations.

Their father was furious.

It was the trigger for a new — and totally unexpected — crisis after the welcome period of royal peace that followed the post-Diana tensions of Charles’s marriage to divorcee Camilla Parker Bowles.

Now it was princes at war.

Charles used his newly raised status as virtual ‘co-monarch’ to bring into practice his long-held belief in a slimmed-down Royal Family, trimming away from public duties all but the most significant members.

The first time this ‘new order’ was seen in public was at the RAF flypast that ended the Jubilee in 2012.

Anne, Andrew and Edward (and their children) were all missing from the Buckingham Palace balcony as World War II aircraft and the Red Arrows roared overhead, and tens of thousands cheered along the Mall.

On the balcony that day were the Queen, Charles and Camilla, William and Kate, and Harry. Prince Philip missed the celebrations because he was ill and in hospital.

Of the three absent royal siblings, Andrew in particular saw his exclusion as a sudden, unexpected demotion from front-rank to peripheral royal. According to a figure close to him, it was ‘like a dagger to his heart’.

The family's upset was triggered when Beatrice (left) graduated from Goldsmith's London and asked to help with the Queen's Jubilee but neither her or her sister Eugeine (right) were contacted 

Even greater, however, was his anger at the way Beatrice and Eugenie had been treated.

As one of his circle remarked: ‘It did seem rather odd to see the former Mrs Parker Bowles on the balcony alongside the Queen, but not three of her children, nor her other grandchildren.’

Certainly, it was more than a little ‘odd’ considering the importance of the occasion. By royal standards, it was extraordinary.

Surely it would have been even odder for Prince Andrew not to make his frustrations known to his mother, to whom he is particularly close, especially on behalf of his daughters.

Nor would it be all that surprising if he wrote to her about it, even if only to register his frustrations on paper for posterity.

Princess Eugenie of York (left) and Princess Beatrice of York celebrating Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday, in aid of The Mercury Pheonix Trust at The Savoy Hotel on September 5, 2011 in London

That nothing has changed since then shows just how powerful the Prince of Wales has become.

Understandably, the Queen hates confrontation. Throughout the 64 years of her reign, she has done all she can to avoid it.

She would especially want to avoid any resurgence of the discord that used to exist between her household and that of the Prince of Wales. ‘These days,’ says a courtier, ‘she doesn’t like to ruffle Prince Charles’s feathers.’

But it is bound to be painful for her to see her children at loggerheads, just when the family was enjoying the sense that all the distressing memories of the Diana years had faded.

The Queen adores Beatrice and Eugenie and is always keen to ask them about the latest developments in their lives — although it must be said that neither has had much to tell about her career path.

The Duchess of York during a mid term skiing holiday in Verbier, Switzerland with her daughters Princesses Beatrice (left) and Eugenie (right)

Beatrice has had four jobs in five years (on both sides of the Atlantic) in the charity sector and in finance, an area in which she is said to have shown promise. She is seen as the keener of the two sisters to carry out royal duties.

Since July she has been setting up her own business consultancy while working part-time with her mother’s charities.

Eugenie, who has a degree in English literature and history of art from Newcastle University, worked for an auction house in New York but is now with Hauser & Wirth, an art gallery in London’s Savile Row.

Beatrice, in particular, has watched with interest her older cousin Zara’s rising prominence and income (to an estimated £1 million a year). But then, Princess Anne’s daughter’s commercial success is based on her being a world-class equestrian. She is an achiever.

It is believed the Queen hates confrontation and always tries to avoid it

Becoming the eventing world champion in 2006 — and BBC Sports Personality of the Year — as well as winning a silver medal at the London Olympics — has turned her into a hugely marketable sporting figure with a list of lucrative endorsements.

Even so, according to one close figure: ‘The girls still feel that Zara is the royal cousin with real privilege because everyone knows she’s the Queen’s granddaughter, though not a princess. Whereas they see themselves as living half-lives as royal princesses, bearing all the responsibilities the title entails but without any of the perks.’

Some are bound to be amused by such an observation. 

After all, Prince Andrew’s girls, with their hugely privileged background, enjoy many long luxury holidays. Indeed, it is not surprising that, having racked up 18 holidays around the world in one year — including a stay on Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s £1.5 billion super-yacht in the Balearics — Beatrice has attracted a great deal of critical comment, particularly as she is the daughter of ‘Airmiles’ Andy and ‘Freebie’ Fergie.

It is believed Beatrice and Eugenie have a good relationship with their grandmother and often visit her for a catch up 

But friends insist that had she been given a ‘proper job’ as a royal princess, she would, as one says, ‘have willingly sacrificed all the holidays in exchange for doing something really useful for the family’.

Since splitting from her long-term boyfriend Dave Clark — who used to work for tycoon Richard Branson’s space project but is now an executive with taxi-hailing app Uber — she has more time on her hands.

Beatrice and American-born Clark had dated for almost ten years and were widely expected to marry. Andrew and Fergie were said to have been ‘completed shocked’ when the couple split up in the summer.

Currently, she and her sister are busy reorganising their domestic arrangements.

Princess Beatrice, 11 and Princess Eugenie 9 stand in front of their parents at the 40th birthday outing of their father, Prince Andrew

For several years they have shared an apartment in St James’s Palace — refurbished with £200,000 of taxpayers’ money and for which they are believed to pay a modest rent — that was once home to one of Prince Charles’s former private secretaries.

But next year Eugenie is due to move into bijou Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace, which should at least answer one of Andrew’s complaints, namely that his daughters should have grander (ie, bigger) accommodation.

It means Beatrice will have the run of a four-bedroom apartment to herself.

After quitting her last job with New York investment company Sandbridge Capital in July, Beatrice has been setting up her own company. 

‘She is creating a start-up consultancy backed by, and in association with, the group she worked with,’ says a friend. ‘But these things do take time.’

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Princess Eugenie of York and Princess Beatrice of York stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the annual Trooping the Colour Ceremony on June 15, 2013 in London

Since the summer she has spent some time abroad visiting charitable projects in India, Nepal and Bhutan to see the work of eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit, and completing a charity triathlon in Sicily with socialite pal Holly Branson.

On Thursday night she was in New York to present a ‘game changers’ award to Dr Ruit in a ceremony at the UN. But she has also been seen at a string of social events in London in the past month.

For many years as they roved the globe, the Princesses had official police bodyguards. Costs had spiralled to an estimated £500,000 a year when, in a review of Scotland Yard protection for the Royal Family in 2011, the girls lost their round-the-clock security.

Prince Andrew with his daughters Princess Eugenie (left) and Princess Beatrice (right) leave Westminster Abbey, London, after the royal wedding of Kate and William

It was a move that Andrew bitterly resented. ‘He took great umbrage at the decision, mainly because he saw it as diminishing his own status,’ recalls a courtier.

These days, the Princesses are still protected at certain times — but at their father’s expense.

There is also the Fergie factor.

The Duchess of York continues to live with Andrew at his home, Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park, even though they have been divorced for more than 20 years. 

Both their names are also on the deeds of their £13 million ski chalet in Verbier, Switzerland, where she also roosts.

Fergie has never complained about her daughters not having a public role, but Beatrice and Eugenie are aware that it would please her enormously if they had one.

‘The girls believe it could help bring their mother back into the royal fold,’ says one figure.

Which is something, one suspects, that Prince Charles has taken into consideration.