🔗 Share this article

It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed knowingly in the background.

Lacking that image, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had openly asserted to have not known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's resources to settle a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly hosted them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the arrogance which expected subservience when he walked into a area or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably painful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short communication showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.