🔗 Share this article

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

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, telling move by someone who had publicly stated to have not heard of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional image of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a area or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously hesitant king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but neither of these will truly occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the concise communication showed evidently that the royals were supporting the complainant's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.