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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have no been aware of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a space or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

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

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals realized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant monarch was pressured further. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first royal to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's large grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided 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 area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

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

• Political Pressure: Will legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief statement showed clearly that the institution were siding with the accuser's account of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.