🔗 Share this article

This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who said she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, telling move by someone who had overtly claimed to have no heard of her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical resources to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were printed in public records: chopper travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the presumption which required subservience when he entered a area or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pushed additional. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial member to lose his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

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

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The statement from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the complainant's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.