🔗 Share this article

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

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who said she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had overtly asserted to have never heard of her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family money to avert a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which required deference when he walked into a room or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a royal residence.

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

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The statement from the palace was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed clearly that the institution were supporting the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed regard for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

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