🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion beamed suggestively in the background.

Without that image, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who declared she was transported across the sea and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had overtly asserted to have no been aware of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's funds to settle a protracted court action.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were printed in official documents: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the profound obsession about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously indecisive king was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the loss of titles and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his service in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's large grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the complainant's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.