🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

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

Absent that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who declared she was transported across the sea and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had openly claimed to have not been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's funds to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were listed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which required subservience when he entered a area or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Currently the loss of designations and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The censures are judged required, despite the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.