Stupidity and Regal Arrogance Sunk Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion grinned suggestively in the rear.

Absent that image, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who stated she was transported across the sea and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have not known about her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's money to avert a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which required deference when he walked into a area or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

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

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when submission and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was pressured further. There was no alternative. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's large property at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short statement showed clearly that the institution were siding with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.