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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory relations with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical funds to avert a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which demanded respect when he walked into a space or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals understood that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive king was pushed further. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his duty in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The statement from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the concise statement showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.