🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion grinned suggestively in the rear.

Without that image, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have not known about her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical resources to resolve a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable 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 extravagance with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members understood that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and privacy is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive monarch was prodded further. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to surrender his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

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

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The message from the institution was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.