Sherlock Holmes’ recorded career as the world’s most famous fictional sleuth began in 1891 with his investigation of ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’. The intention was to save the blushes of a peccadillo-prone European royal, as his mistress had some compromising photos of them in her possession. Holmes did the needful back then, but another similarly inclined British prince may have been better off if some Holmesian character had been around for the Epstein Scandal.

But no one, it seems, sought such help for Prince Andrew, the beleaguered second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and hence he now stands stripped of his Duke of York title and apex royal honours such as the Order of the Garter and the Royal Victorian Order. And all because he got embroiled with the highly dubious if rich American Jeffrey Epstein and did not fully extricate himself even as damning evidence emerged of his trafficking young girls and other shady activities.

It appears to be a case of supreme stupidity, enhanced by an overweening sense of entitlement; and of course, plain greed. And at the heart of it lies the principle of male primogeniture practised in the British royal family for centuries, which meant the eldest son (or barring a male heir, the eldest daughter) inherited pretty much everything. That always left the others at the mercy of their reigning parent and then the one sibling destined to be monarch, for their very livelihood.

Now it is no longer male primogeniture. After King Charles III, his first-born son Prince William will be monarch, whose son Prince George is next. In the latter’s case, though, it is no longer because he is the eldest male but because he is the eldest child. If George then has a first-born daughter she will reign after him. But that does not resolve the issue of impecunious younger royal........

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