🔗 Share this article

It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion grinned suggestively in the rear.

Without that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, telling move by someone who had openly asserted to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family money to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were documented in public records: chopper travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a room or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the story.

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

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first royal to lose his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his role in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will truly occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the removal of titles was what the king, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.