🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the sea and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had publicly stated to have never heard of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of family money to avert a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which demanded deference when he entered a room or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary member to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large estate at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief communication showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are judged required, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.