🔗 Share this article

It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken 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 rear.

Lacking that image, taken at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have not been aware of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which expected subservience when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals realized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pressured further. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Currently the loss of titles and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first member to lose his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The statement from the palace was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's narrative of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.