🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate grinned suggestively in the rear.

Absent that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, telling move by someone who had openly asserted to have not known about her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical money to settle a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously hesitant monarch was pressured more. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short communication showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.