Royal experts are undecided if Prince Andrew will lose his royal and military titles amid his ongoing battle against a sexual assault lawsuit.

The Duke of York is facing the prospect of giving evidence in court after a New York judge rejected his lawyer’s attempts to have the case thrown out.

Virginia Giuffre claims she was made to have sex with Andrew when she was 17 and while she was the victim of a sex trafficking ring orchestrated by Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Andrew strenuously denies all allegations made against him and has previously claimed to have no recollection of meeting Ms Guiffre.

His legal team tried to persuade Judge Lewis A Kaplin that Ms Giuffre’s lawsuit was unlawful under the terms of a 2009 deal signed with Epstein.

But it took the judge just hours to deny the motion ‘in all respects’.

The development will be a bitter blow for Andrew whose military and royal titles are now further in doubt.

Before the ruling, palace officials reportedly discussed plans to ask him to stop using his title as duke in the event he lost the lawsuit.

However, royal commentator and biographer Christopher Warwick believes it is ‘highly unlikely’ that Andrew will lose his duke title.

He told Sky News that while the Queen can appoint dukes, it takes an act of parliament to remove their titles ‘which wouldn’t cover Andrew or the monarchy in glory’.

Mr Warwick said the 1917 Titles Deprivation Act was introduced during the First World War to deprive ‘enemy royals’ from keeping their British titles.

He added: ‘Andrew is not an enemy of Britain, so the Titles Deprivation Act wouldn’t come into it.’

But others have said the latest development is ‘very bad news’ for the Queen’s son.

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Royal biographer Phil Dampier told The Sun: ‘This will obviously do nothing to help his reputation, I think he is finished as a working royal.

‘It was suggested he would try and get back this year for the 40th anniversary of the Falklands events but that’s not going to happen for him the way this is going.’

Andrew stepped back from royal duties two years ago and has since not attended any military events.

Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine, said the Queen would likely make a decision about Andrew’s titles as ‘a last resort’.

‘It’s not going to be at the top of [the Queen’s] list of things she wants to do,’ she said.

‘It’s unprecedented. She will probably say to Andrew keep your title Duke of York but you’ve got to relinquish your military appointments regardless of where you stand in this case.’

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