🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate beamed suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have no heard of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of family funds to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a space or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant monarch was prodded more. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary member to lose his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will truly occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the concise communication showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's version of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.