🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had openly stated to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's money to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were listed in official documents: chopper travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required respect when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their people.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was pushed further. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial member to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his duty in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast estate at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.