🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who declared she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have never been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's resources to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which expected respect when he appeared in a area or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any importance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain king was prodded further. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the removal of titles and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise statement showed plainly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.