Folly and Regal Arrogance Damaged Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Without that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical money to settle a protracted court action.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were listed in public records: chopper travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which expected respect when he entered a area or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

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

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an era when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the loss of titles and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to surrender his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the conflict

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast estate at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short announcement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.