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

It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had publicly asserted to have no heard of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were documented in official documents: chopper flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which expected deference when he entered a space or the profound awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his connections.

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

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals understood that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when submission and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary member to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The message from the royal household was clearly that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short statement showed clearly that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.