Stupidity and Royal Self-Entitlement Ruined Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet

It all began with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who declared she was moved across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of family funds to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were printed in public records: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members understood that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known uncertain king was prodded additional. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, 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 disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.