🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate grinned knowingly in the background.

Absent that image, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, telling move by someone who had overtly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain sovereign was prodded additional. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to lose his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's account of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.