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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who said she was transported across the sea and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, telling move by someone who had openly stated to have no been aware of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical resources to settle a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were listed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which required respect when he walked into a room or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain king was prodded more. There was no alternative. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the loss of titles and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is limited. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.