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

The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual grinned suggestively in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had publicly claimed to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's resources to settle a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which required deference when he entered a space or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

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

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, accountable and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured more. There was little choice. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the loss of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the removal of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise statement showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.