🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that image, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have not been aware of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to avert a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were documented in public records: private aircraft flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which demanded respect when he appeared in a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known hesitant king was prodded further. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the loss of titles and the persistent and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his role in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the institution was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short announcement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.