Foolishness and Royal Self-Entitlement Sunk Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet

This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed knowingly in the rear.

Absent that image, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who declared she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not heard of her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's money to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were listed in public records: private aircraft flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which expected respect when he walked into a space or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an time when respect and secrecy is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known uncertain monarch was pushed further. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at Sandringham.

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

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

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

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short announcement showed plainly that the institution were aligning with the victim's version of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.