LONDON — Britain's late Queen Elizabeth pressed almost three decades ago for her son Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to be made a government trade envoy, according to confidential documents released on Thursday, and there is no evidence that any due diligence or security vetting took place before the appointment.
The files, made public after an opposition party request, cover the period when Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, served as special representative for trade and investment from 2001 to 2011. A memo dated February 2000 from David Wright, then chief executive of British Trade International, noted that the Queen had been "very keen" for her son to take on the role.
"The Queen's wish is that the Duke of Kent should be succeeded in this role by the Duke of York," Wright wrote in the memo addressed to former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. The documents were released following a request by the Liberal Democrats using a rare parliamentary device three months earlier, prompted in part by U.S. Justice Department emails suggesting Mountbatten-Windsor had shared sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein during his tenure.
Junior trade minister Chris Bryant told Parliament in a written statement that officials found no records of formal due diligence or security checks at the time of the appointment. Mountbatten-Windsor received no salary for the position, which involved traveling to meet senior business and government figures around the world, though questions were raised at the time about the scale of his travel expenses.
Another released document showed that Mountbatten-Windsor's private secretary informed the head of protocol at the Foreign Office that the duke preferred visits to "more sophisticated countries, particularly those in the lead on technology." The memo added that he favored seeing ballet rather than theatre during overseas trips.
Mountbatten-Windsor stepped down from the role in 2011, the same year a photograph emerged showing him with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, who later accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. He has consistently denied those allegations and expressed regret over his association with Epstein, the late sex offender.
This year Mountbatten-Windsor became the first member of the British royal family to be arrested in more than three centuries when he was questioned on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and the circumstances surrounding his public role.
Queen Elizabeth, who died in 2022, had long supported her son's public duties, and the newly disclosed files underscore how her personal wishes influenced government decisions on his appointment. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the internal discussions that led to the creation of the special envoy position.
Critics have long questioned the appropriateness of the arrangement, particularly given the lack of standard vetting procedures that would typically apply to such government-linked roles. Officials have not commented on whether any informal checks occurred outside formal channels.
The release comes amid renewed scrutiny of Mountbatten-Windsor's past activities and his connections to Epstein, whose criminal network has been the subject of multiple investigations in both Britain and the United States. The files do not address those later developments directly but focus on the mechanics of the 2001 appointment.
British Trade International, the organization involved in the early discussions, was later disbanded, and its functions were absorbed into other government bodies. The 31 pages of material now in the public domain represent one of the more detailed official accounts of how royal family members have been integrated into trade promotion efforts.
According to the documents, the preference for certain types of destinations and cultural activities shaped the itinerary of overseas visits during Mountbatten-Windsor's decade in the post. These details emerged from internal correspondence that had remained classified until the recent parliamentary request.
Further releases or inquiries could shed additional light on the full extent of any background reviews that may have been conducted informally. For now, the available records show a process driven largely by the Queen's expressed interest rather than a competitive or rigorously vetted selection.