Folly and Monarchical Hubris Ruined Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had openly claimed to have never heard of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were printed in public records: chopper transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which demanded subservience when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his contact with a disgraced individual.

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

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously indecisive king was pushed further. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the loss of designations and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

This differs from his former home, 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.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.