🔗 Share this article

It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion beamed knowingly in the rear.

Absent that image, shot at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who stated she was moved across the sea and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, telling action by someone who had overtly asserted to have not known about her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of family funds to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which required deference when he appeared in a space or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his companions.

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

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the story.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not moving to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is limited. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise statement showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.