🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual grinned suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have never heard of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family money to avert a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were listed in public records: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which expected respect when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and reactive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an era when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of designations and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his role in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

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

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's version of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.