Stupidity and Monarchical Hubris Damaged Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual grinned suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to settle a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which expected respect when he appeared in a room or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an age when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known indecisive sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first member to surrender his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief communication showed plainly that the institution were supporting the victim's account of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.