🔗 Share this article Foolishness and Royal Self-Entitlement Ruined Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household. Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual grinned knowingly in the backdrop. Absent that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who declared she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal family? A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of family funds to settle a long-delayed court action. Over a Decade of Controversy Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual surfaced. Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant? Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly welcomed them to royal residences. Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds. Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast". World of Deference Furthermore the entitlement which expected deference when he entered a space or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his friends. He avoided accountability while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago. Latest Events Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his associates. Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure. The public (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of hubris. Royal Worries The wiser royals understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished. They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their subjects. He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and privacy is no longer enough. The Fallout Eventually, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the account. Presently the removal of titles and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely. Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen Historical Precedent: The first monarch to surrender his titles in recent history Military Service: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually come to pass. Coming Developments Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew, Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's large property at a monarchical property. There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend. It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed. Pending Matters This is not over. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed. Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators seek further action Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of public money Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the removal of titles was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted. Changed Stance An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the complainant's version of incidents. Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him." In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.