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The royal is surrendering his designations, such as the the Duke, he has stated in a individual message.

He has been under growing attention over his connections with disgraced financier Epstein, with calls for the royal household to take action against him.

That now seems to have resulted in the figure deciding to of his own accord hand back his designations and to relinquish membership of the prestigious order.

In his message he said he continued to "firmly dispute the accusations against me".

"In talks with the King, and my direct and wider family, we have decided the continued claims about me take away from the responsibilities of the monarch and the monarchy," said a message from Prince Andrew.

"I have opted, as I always have, to put my responsibility to my family and land first.

"I uphold my resolution five years ago to stand back from public life.

"With the monarch's agreement, we feel I must now go a additional measure. I will therefore no longer employ my title or the awards which have been bestowed on me. As I have said before, I vigorously refute the allegations against me."

He has been involved in a number of controversies, including a lawsuit he resolved with Virginia Giuffre, doubts about his economic affairs and his involvement with an suspected foreign agent.

He will continue to be a royal - but will stop to be the York's Duke, a honor received from his parent, the Queen Elizabeth II.

Andrew had already ended to be a "participating figure" and had lost the use of his His Royal Highness designation and no longer appeared at official royal events. His status now will be even more diminished.

His ex-wife will be known as Ferguson and no longer York's Duchess, but their offspring will carry on to have the title of princesses.

He has faced severe attention over his links with notorious figure Jeffrey Epstein, more lately including inquiries about when he had truly severed communication.

In his media discussion, the royal had said that he had ended all links with Epstein after they had been photographed together in New York in the end of 2010.

But emails sent in early 2011 later came to light implying that the prince had in private continued in communication with him, for example exchanging a note: "Stay in contact and we'll play some more soon!"

There had been mounting displeasure in the royal household at the scandals that remained to envelop the prince.

Next week a book released after death by Giuffre will be released which is likely to bring further attention on his association with the plaintiff and Jeffrey Epstein.