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

It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling move by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were printed in public records: chopper travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals understood that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

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

Presently the loss of titles and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The message from the institution was plainly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short announcement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.