Stupidity and Royal Self-Entitlement Sunk Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was moved across the ocean and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had openly claimed to have never been aware of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were listed in public records: chopper travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which required respect when he appeared in a space or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary royal to surrender his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his duty in the conflict

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The message from the palace was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short statement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the complainant's account of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.