🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion beamed suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to avert a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a room or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an age when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously uncertain sovereign was prodded more. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary royal to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his service in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

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

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the palace was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.