Foolishness and Monarchical Hubris Ruined Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet

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

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

Absent that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, telling move by someone who had openly asserted to have not known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical funds to avert a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required deference when he entered a area or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and attentive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the story.

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

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first royal to surrender his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The message from the palace was plainly that the removal of titles was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short communication showed plainly that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.