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

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

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who stated she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical resources to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in public records: helicopter flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Furthermore the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a room or the profound awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

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

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant sovereign was prodded additional. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary monarch to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's large estate at a monarchical property.

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

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief statement showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.