🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was transported 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 been aware of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical resources to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded deference when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known hesitant monarch was prodded further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Presently the removal of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to lose his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of personal stipend.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.