Foolishness and Royal Self-Entitlement Sunk Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who stated she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have brief relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing action by someone who had openly asserted to have not heard of her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of family money to avert a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected subservience when he appeared in a space or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an era when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known indecisive sovereign was prodded additional. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the removal of designations and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his role in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

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

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the institution was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief communication showed evidently that the royals were siding with the victim's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.