Increasingly, as he has grown older, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has acquired a reputation as one of the rudest, most boorish and entitled members of the Royal Family. The former duke’s shocking manners were on full display, says royal biographer Robert Hardman, ahead of an investiture at Buckingham Palace. In his new biography of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, being serialised in the Daily Mail, R obert spoke to several people who were at the event, including one who told him: “We were walking across the quadrangle and suddenly this blue Bentley appeared and did a handbrake turn, throwing up gravel over other people's cars.

“Someone said, ‘I bet that's Andrew.’ And sure enough it was. And everyone was talking about it as we went in because it had just spoiled things. He lived at Buckingham Palace, whereas we were just the little people going in there for our big day. And he just had to make it all about him.” Andrew’s arrogance on that occasion was by no means a one-off, Robert says. In his book, he describes an earlier incident at Windsor, when grooms from the Royal Mews had been riding some of the Queen's horses on the estate.

“One had waved a firm hand at an approaching car which was revving its engine aggressively,” Robert writes. “It pulled alongside and, through the window, the Duke of York bellowed at her: ‘Who the f*** do you think you are?’ He then demanded her name. What’s more, he even took it up with the Queen — in person,” a former member of the Household recalled.

Despite Andrew’s implied threat, there were no consequences for the groom following that distressing confrontation.

One insider told Robert that the same qualities that made Andrew Her Majesty’s “favourite” son were, in the end, the traits that made him widely disliked by Palace staff: “He'd been this wonderful baby after the ten-year gap with her older children. He wasn't sensitive like King Charles III but, rather, had all the qualities that her husband had been — a straightforward, handsome naval officer. On the other hand, he was a seven-year-old who never grew up.”

His 22-year stint in the Royal Navy, from 1979 until 2001, appeared to provide some much-needed structure in Andrew’s life: “We did press the Navy very hard to keep him on, but they couldn't find a suitable role,” a senior royal aide later told Robert.

Dickie Arbiter, who handled the late Queen's public profile for more than a decade, said he is certain staff currently working in Buckingham Palace's press office will feel grateful they no longer need to account for “arrogant and entitled” Andrew.

Similarly, Dai Davies, who served as Operational Unit Commander in charge of Royal Protection for the Queen and the Royal Family during the mid-1990s, led a team of approximately 450 police officers tasked with safeguarding senior royals across the UK and overseas.

He remembers most of his charges as “perfectly pleasant”. Like Dickie Arbiter, he found working for the then-Prince and Princess of Wales enjoyable: “Charles was polite,” he said. “Diana — I liked her very much. When I started, she said to me, ‘You poor man — do you know what you've taken on?’”

However, like numerous former royal staff members, Dai has very few positive things to say about “rude and dismissive” Andrew.

Elizabeth II. In Private. In Public. The Inside Story, by Robert Hardman (Pan Macmillan, £22) will be published on April 9.