Folly and Regal Arrogance Damaged Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet

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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the sea and forced to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had overtly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were documented in official documents: chopper transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the arrogance which demanded respect when he entered a area or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. 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 understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when deference and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known indecisive king was pushed more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the loss of titles and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first monarch to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of financial support.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Political Pressure: Might legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief statement showed clearly that the institution were siding with the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.