Foolishness and Regal Arrogance Sunk Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed suggestively in the rear.

Without that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, telling action by someone who had publicly asserted to have never heard of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's money to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the arrogance which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

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

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed additional. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary monarch to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably hurtful given his role in the conflict

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive property at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the palace was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.