Foolishness and Royal Self-Entitlement Ruined Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

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

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the sea and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had overtly claimed to have no known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to settle a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which expected deference when he entered a space or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously indecisive sovereign was pushed additional. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the account.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

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

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief statement showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.