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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

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

Without that image, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which expected respect when he walked into a room or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, responsible and attentive to their people.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously indecisive king was pressured further. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the loss of titles and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first member to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed plainly that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of events.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.