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

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

There stood the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while an associate smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Absent that image, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, telling move by someone who had openly asserted to have never known about her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of family resources to avert a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which required subservience when he walked into a space or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

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

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain monarch was pushed more. There was little choice. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the removal of designations and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly stinging given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast property at a monarchical property.

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

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The message from the palace was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.