Charles I, the last royal to be arrested, was executed two years later, in January, 1649. “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can be,” he reportedly said, in his final moments. It reminded me of one of Mountbatten-Windsor’s e-mails to Epstein, sent in January of 2011, about six weeks before the photograph with Giuffre was first published. The then prince was heading for his annual retreat. “For one week of the year it’s great,” he wrote. “Time to put something back into me before the rest of the world starts sucking it out in all their greed and demands.” Royals are caged most of the time. The disturbance is constant. The attention is pitiless. Sympathy is basically zero. It shouldn’t be a surprise that they are corruptible. (Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein and his victims.) Nor should it be a surprise that, of all the powerful men and women implicated by the release of the Epstein files, a former prince is among the first to be brought to book. Once you are cast out of the palace, you find that you have no friends at all.Editor’s PickThe Chaos of an ICE Detention