Folly and Royal Self-Entitlement Sunk Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

It all began with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who said she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had openly claimed to have no been aware of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical funds to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his aides and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which required respect when he appeared in a room or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals realized that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured additional. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial member to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the complainant's narrative of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.