🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family funds to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which demanded subservience when he appeared in a space or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

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

He was placing all that in danger in an age when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously uncertain sovereign was pushed more. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the account.

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

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary member to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will ever happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The message from the institution was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short announcement showed clearly that the royals were supporting the victim's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.