🔗 Share this article

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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had publicly claimed to have no heard of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to resolve a protracted legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a area or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial royal to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his service in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

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

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

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

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the palace was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief announcement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's version of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.