🔗 Share this article

It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate smiled knowingly in the rear.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who said she was moved across the sea and compelled to have brief relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had overtly claimed to have no been aware of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of family resources to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the profound obsession about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals realized that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded more. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the stripping of designations and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is limited. The statement from the palace was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise communication showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the accuser's version of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.