Folly and Royal Self-Entitlement Damaged Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling action by someone who had openly stated to have no been aware of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's funds to avert a protracted legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• 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 public records: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the arrogance which required deference when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed additional. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The message from the palace was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief announcement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that reality.