🔗 Share this article

It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had publicly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to avert a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were listed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, accountable and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the continued and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary member to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but neither of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's large grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The statement from the palace was clearly that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "The censures are judged required, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.