Foolishness and Royal Self-Entitlement Ruined Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual grinned suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had openly stated to have no known about her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of family resources to settle a protracted legal case.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and an additional image of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were listed in official documents: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which demanded respect when he entered a space or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously uncertain king was prodded further. There was no alternative. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial member to surrender his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The message from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's account of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.