🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion beamed knowingly in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family resources to avert a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in public records: helicopter travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected deference when he walked into a space or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.