London —
The late Queen Elizabeth II was “very keen” for her son, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, to take on a “prominent role” in promoting Britain’s national interests, a former official previously said, according to a trove of documents relating to the former prince’s appointment as a British trade envoy in 2001.
In a memo to the then-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook dated February 2000, David Wright, then chief executive of government body British Trade International, said that “the Queen’s wish” was for Mountbatten-Windsor to serve as a trade envoy, and that the role would “fit well” with the end of his career in the British Navy.
The exchange was detailed in a batch of documents released Thursday by the British government relating to Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as trade envoy, a role from which the former prince stood down in 2011 over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Lawmakers agreed in February to publish documents related to Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment to the post, days after the disgraced royal was briefly arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
