🔗 Share this article Stupidity and Monarchical Hubris Damaged Andrew, and It Might Persist Yet The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household. There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background. Absent that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who said she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have cursory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline? A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to avert a drawn-out court action. Years of Controversy In this context, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light. Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous? Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces. Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money. Trips were printed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast". World of Deference Then there was the presumption which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his friends. He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago. Latest Events Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his associates. More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual. Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris. Institutional Fears The more astute royals understood that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished. They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their people. Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate. The Fallout Eventually, the well-known hesitant king was pushed further. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the account. Now it is the loss of designations and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply. Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor Prior Instance: The primary member to forfeit his designations in modern times Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his role in the engagement He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will actually happen. What Lies Ahead Can persons he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Mr, Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast grounds at Sandringham. At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance. It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed. Outstanding Concerns Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed. Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of public money Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The message from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, desired. Changed Stance No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed plainly that the institution were supporting the accuser's version of occurrences. Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him." Finally it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.