Folly and Regal Arrogance Ruined Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

It all began with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled knowingly in the rear.

Absent that image, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who said she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling action by someone who had publicly asserted to have not heard of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical funds to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which demanded respect when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive monarch was prodded additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to lose his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Maybe for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the concise statement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's version of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.