Folly and Royal Self-Entitlement Damaged Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet

The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned suggestively in the rear.

Without that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the sea and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have not been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which required respect when he entered a room or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of books giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals realized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured further. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his role in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The statement from the institution was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short communication showed evidently that the institution were supporting the accuser's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, despite the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.