🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the sea and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling action by someone who had overtly claimed to have never heard of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical funds to resolve a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in public records: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he entered a area or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive property at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the present the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were siding with the accuser's narrative of events.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.