🔗 Share this article Stupidity and Monarchical Hubris Damaged Andrew, and It May Not Be Over Yet It all began with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy. Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion smiled knowingly in the backdrop. Lacking that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline? A strange, revealing action by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case. Years of Controversy In this context, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced. Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous? Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences. Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money. Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast". Existence of Entitlement Furthermore the entitlement which required subservience when he walked into a room or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances. He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago. Latest Events Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his companions. More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual. Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris. Monarchical Concerns The more intelligent family members realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and unblemished. Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and responsive to their people. Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and privacy is no longer adequate. Consequences Finally, the notoriously indecisive king was pushed further. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative. Presently the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply. Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor Past Example: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era Naval Career: Notably painful given his service in the conflict He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually happen. Future Prospects Will people he comes across still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Sir, Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive estate at Sandringham. There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend. This is not his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed. Outstanding Concerns Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed. Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators demand more Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of public money Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The message from the palace was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, desired. Changed Stance An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise communication showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's version of events. Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him." In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.