🔗 Share this article

It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion beamed knowingly in the rear.

Without that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the sea and compelled to have cursory relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had openly asserted to have no known about her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family funds to avert a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which expected subservience when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured further. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Now it is the removal of designations and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to lose his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

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

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.