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

The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have not known about her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of monarchical resources to avert a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in public records: private aircraft 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 benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which expected deference when he walked into a area or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first monarch to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly stinging given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short announcement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed regard for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.