🔗 Share this article

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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was transported across the sea and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family money to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were printed in public records: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which demanded deference when he walked into a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

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

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known hesitant king was pressured additional. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the story.

Presently the loss of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to lose his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

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

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The statement from the institution was plainly that the removal of designations was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed plainly that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.