What would happen to Prince William if he was charged with a serious crime?

You don’t have to read too far between the lines to see that something is going awry in the British Royal Family. King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer, but Buckingham Palace is refusing to give any details of what kind of cancer it is or how his treatment is progressing.

Meanwhile, the Princess of Wales is recovering from a mysterious abdominal surgery and hasn’t been seen for weeks. Speculation on what’s really going on behind the scenes was already high, and gas has now been poured on the fire after King Charles and Prince William dropped out of a memorial service at the last minute. William was due to speak at the memorial for the late King Constantine of Greece, his godfather, but has pulled out for vaguely defined “personal reasons.”

Social media is running wild with what that could mean, with some leaping to the conclusion that William attacked Kate (necessitating her operation, recovery, and mysterious disappearance) and that she’s about to press criminal charges against her husband. First up, that’s unsubstantiated gossip (and anyway, William has been out and about in public not acting particularly guilty), but it’s worth asking what would happen if the heir to the throne was facing a serious criminal charge.

The Royal Family and crime

There’s little modern precedent for members of the Royal family being convicted of a crime and no precedent for a custodial sentence. The one concrete example we have is a minor offense. In 2002, Princess Anne was convicted under the Dangerous Dogs Act when her terrier Dotty bit two children in Windsor Park. Anne pleaded guilty and was fined £750.

Other Royals have come close to being placed before a judge. In 2019, the then-97-year-old Prince Phillip was involved in a car crash that left the driver and passenger of a Kia hospitalized. The Crown Prosecution Service investigated, but after Phillip surrendered his driving license, no charges were brought. On a different scale altogether is Prince Andrew, who could plausibly have been charged with sexual offenses in connection with his notorious friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew’s eventual massive financial settlement with Virginia Guiffre was widely seen as being motivated by keeping him out of the witness box in a civil trial in New York.

What would happen if William was charged?

Theoretically, every member of the Royal Family except the reigning Monarch can be charged with a criminal offense, tried by a jury, and sentenced to jail by a judge. However, I suspect that if William was hit with a serious criminal charge, the reality of the situation would be far more complicated. For one, what happens if Charles dies while William is incarcerated? Would he be released the moment he became King?

It’s also worth pointing out that once William is King, he can essentially get away with murder. All criminal trials in the United Kingdom are in the monarch’s name (i.e. Rex vs. Defendant) and prisoners are held “At His Majesty’s Pleasure.” At least on paper, the monarch can do whatever they want, with the Royal Family’s official website stating (before Elizabeth’s death):

“Although civil and criminal proceedings cannot be taken against the sovereign as a person under UK law, the Queen is careful to ensure that all her activities in her personal capacity are carried out in strict accordance with the law.”

As we don’t know Charles’ current state of health, William may end up as King sooner than the country expected, meaning that in the very unlikely event this internet scuttlebutt is true, he would be able to dismiss any domestic violence charges made against him. That said, though the monarch is legally invulnerable, they ultimately exist at the behest of the British public and, if there was a sufficient outcry that threatened the institution of the Royal Family itself, I think William would be pressured to abdicate. And then we have a 10-year-old King George (and presumably some kind of Regent looking after him until he’s 18).

Once again, I can only underline that all this is theory, but after decades of stability, the Royal Family is suddenly on very shaky ground. While I don’t put much stock into what random anonymous gossip-hounds are saying on social media, there’s more going on with the Royals right now than meets the eye. Here’s hoping we get the full story soon.