King Charles reportedly decided the fate of his brother Andrew Mountbatten Windsor with a phone call.
The King this week stripped his disgraced brother of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Palace insiders told The Times that Charles' decision was a sign of the monarch's 'steel' after he made a private phone call to Andrew to break the news of his decision, which was only made after the King how his brother would cope.
A royal source said: 'For a while, there were significant welfare issues. His entire raison d'être revolves around status. We were asking ourselves: 'Can he cope?' In the end, we reached a tipping point and he was made to see sense.'
An insider also said: 'In the past three years of the King's reign we have seen his humanity, warmth and compassion,' a royal source said. 'Now, we've seen his steel.'
Demand had been growing on the palace to oust the prince from the Royal Lodge after he surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier this month over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations by one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir hit bookstores last week.
But the king went even further to punish him for serious lapses of judgment by removing the title of prince that he has held since birth as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Following the king's move, Andrew will have to vacate his Royal Lodge mansion near Windsor Castle.
But Andrew faces even more humiliation, as the Royal Collection Trust is reportedly set to remove artworks that have hung at the Royal Lodge since the Queen Mother's time.
The paintings, which are understood to include the 19th-century oil painting Eugenie, Empress of the French by Edouard Boutibonne, would be returned.
Another artefact expected to be removed is understood to be an ancient sword that Andrew's daughter Princess Beatrice accidentally sliced singer Ed Sheeran's face with while pretending to knight musician James Blunt at a party.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Thursday that the King's moves against Andrew were 'deemed necessary notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.
'Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.'
It is almost unprecedented for a British prince or princess to be stripped of that title. It last happened in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, who was a UK royal and also a prince of Hanover, had his British title removed for siding with Germany during World War I.
Andrew faced a new round of public outrage after emails emerged earlier this month showing he had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted.
That news was followed by the publication of 'Nobody's Girl,' by Giuffre, who alleged she had sex with Andrew when she was 17.
The book detailed three alleged sexual encounters with Andrew, who she said acted as if he believed 'having sex with me was his birthright.'
Andrew, 65, has long denied Giuffre's claims, but stepped down from royal duties after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut her allegations.
Andrew paid millions in an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre filed a civil suit against him in New York. While he didn't admit wrongdoing, he acknowledged Giuffre's suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.
Although Charles was involved in discussions with Andrew before he announced he would relinquish his dukedom two weeks ago, the king had largely managed to steer clear of the scandal until this week.
It’s the most dramatic royal departure since 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. The couple were given the titles Duke and Duchess of Windsor and lived the rest of their lives in exile outside Britain.
