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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual grinned suggestively in the rear.

Without that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the ocean and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have not heard of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical money to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which expected respect when he walked into a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously uncertain king was pressured additional. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary monarch to lose his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his duty in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The message from the institution was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.