Stupidity and Monarchical Hubris Sunk Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet

The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had openly stated to have never heard of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's funds to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which expected respect when he walked into a area or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was prodded more. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the continued and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast property at a royal residence.

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

It is not his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the complainant's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.