Folly and Royal Self-Entitlement Damaged Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

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

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have never been aware of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical money to resolve a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected respect when he entered a space or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals realized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the story.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will truly happen.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry 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 sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.