Foolishness and Monarchical Hubris Damaged Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet

It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion beamed suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who said she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had openly stated to have never been aware of her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical money to resolve a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were listed in official documents: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which required subservience when he appeared in a space or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously indecisive king was pressured additional. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the loss of titles and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's large property at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of personal stipend.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area 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 US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise communication showed evidently that the institution were siding with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.