🔗 Share this article

It all began with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who declared she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's funds to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he entered a room or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when respect and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously indecisive king was pressured further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

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

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the victim's version of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.