Folly and Monarchical Hubris Sunk Andrew, and It Could Continue Yet
It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.
In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate beamed knowingly in the backdrop.
Without that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?
A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have never heard of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical money to settle a long-delayed legal case.
Years of Controversy
In this context, discussions of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional image of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual emerged.
- Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
- Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
- Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.
Trips were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".
Existence of Entitlement
Furthermore the presumption which demanded respect when he entered a area or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his associates.
He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.
Current Situation
Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his connections.
More information have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.
Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any significance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.
Royal Worries
The more intelligent royals realized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.
Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their people.
Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.
The Fallout
Eventually, the famously uncertain king was pushed additional. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the account.
Currently the loss of honorifics and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.
- Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
- Prior Instance: The first monarch to surrender his honorifics in recent history
- Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the engagement
He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will truly come to pass.
Coming Developments
Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Mr,
Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large property at a monarchical property.
In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.
This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.
Outstanding Concerns
This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.
- Political Pressure: Will parliament request additional information
- Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
- Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct
Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior royals, wanted.
Altered Approach
An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the complainant's narrative of events.
Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."
Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.