Stupidity and Monarchical Hubris Sunk Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion beamed suggestively in the rear.

Absent that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have cursory relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly claimed to have no been aware of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's funds to settle a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their people.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was prodded more. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The statement from the institution was clearly that the removal of designations was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.