🔗 Share this article

The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual beamed knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that image, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had openly claimed to have no known about her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to avert a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which required subservience when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known indecisive king was pushed further. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a monarchical property.

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

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The message from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's version of events.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.