Foolishness and Regal Arrogance Damaged Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate grinned suggestively in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who said she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical money to settle a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were listed in public records: helicopter 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 benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which demanded subservience when he appeared in a room or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the well-known uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

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

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise announcement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.