Foolishness and Monarchical Hubris Ruined Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet

This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual beamed knowingly in the background.

Without that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the ocean and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had overtly claimed to have no heard of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's resources to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: 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 staff and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which required subservience when he entered a space or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals understood that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an time when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

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

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The statement from the palace was clearly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the royals were supporting the accuser's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.