🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that image, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have brief relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have never heard of her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of family funds to settle a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were printed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which required deference when he walked into a room or the profound awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously uncertain king was prodded more. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially painful given his service in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

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

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the complainant's version of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.