Folly and Monarchical Hubris Sunk Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary monarch to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large property at Sandringham.

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

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The message from the palace was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

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

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.