Foolishness and Monarchical Hubris Sunk Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

The saga started with a solitary photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who said she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a member of the royal family?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had openly claimed to have no known about her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical funds to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which expected deference when he walked into a room or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, responsible and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant monarch was pushed additional. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first member to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The message from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed plainly that the royals were supporting the complainant's narrative of events.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.