King Charles' brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor still holds THIS historic title

While King Charles stripped his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor off his royal titles recently, there's still one last honour he is still holding onto.

After scandals surrounding his association with late financier Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew lost his royal titles and patronages. However, he still holds the historic Freedom of the City of London, a civic honour dating back hundreds of years.

Officials from the City of London Corporation confirmed that the distinction cannot currently be revoked as Andrew received it in 2012 by "virtue of patrimony." He inherited the status through his father, Prince Philip.

An insider recently told Radar Online, "When Andrew was stripped of his royal patronages and ceremonial roles, many people naturally assumed that every remaining distinction linked to his name would follow the same path."

"There was an expectation that the Freedom of the City of London would quietly be withdrawn as part of that broader reckoning. But once officials began looking closely at the legal framework behind it, they discovered the situation was far more complicated than anyone initially thought," they added.

As per the sources, "This is not a case of the City of London stepping in to shield Andrew or defend his reputation. The difficulty lies in how he received the honor in the first place. Because it was granted through patrimony – effectively inherited through his father rather than awarded through a formal nomination – it carries a different legal status and is horrifically complex to remove.

"That distinction means the corporation simply does not possess the same powers to revoke it that it would if the Freedom had originally been granted through the standard process," they explained.

Moreover, another insider also revealed that "Officials examined the regulations line by line to see if there was any provision allowing them to revoke a Freedom granted through patrimony."

"But the conclusion they reached was that, legally speaking, those awards function almost like inherited rights rather than honors that can be granted or removed at the discretion of the corporation," they added.

However, the sources claim that it is very difficult for King Charles' brother to lose "every remaining distinction" since the rules governing the Freedom of the City were "written centuries ago, in a completely different social and political context."

"They were never designed to deal with situations like this, where modern public controversy collides with ancient civic traditions," the source added.