Foolishness and Monarchical Hubris Damaged Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet

It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical resources to settle a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were printed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which demanded subservience when he entered a area or the profound obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

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

Royal Worries

The wiser family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pressured additional. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his role in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

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

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The message from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief communication showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's version of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.