🔗 Share this article

It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual smiled knowingly in the rear.

Absent that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had overtly claimed to have no heard of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which required deference when he walked into a room or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his connections.

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

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

Royal Worries

The wiser family members understood that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the famously hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the removal of titles and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to surrender his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly occur.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive property at Sandringham.

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

This differs from his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The message from the palace was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.