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

The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion smiled suggestively in the rear.

Absent that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the royal family?

An odd, telling move by someone who had publicly stated to have not been aware of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of family funds to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which expected respect when he appeared in a space or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed additional. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the loss of titles and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually occur.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed clearly that the institution were siding with the accuser's version of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.