🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Absent that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have not been aware of her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of family resources to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in official documents: chopper transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a space or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

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

Now it is the stripping of designations and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary royal to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise communication showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.