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

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

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion smiled knowingly in the background.

Without that image, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who declared she was transported across the sea and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have not known about her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to settle a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were printed in official documents: helicopter transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which required respect when he appeared in a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was pressured additional. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial royal to surrender his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the sovereign 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 token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise communication showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will kill the crown. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.