🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who said she was moved across the sea and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never been aware of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical resources to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected deference when he entered a area or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

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

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an age when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the famously uncertain king was pushed more. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

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

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the conflict

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's account of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.