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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who said she was transported across the ocean and forced to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had publicly stated to have not heard of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family money to avert a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were documented in public records: helicopter travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive sovereign was pressured more. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the story.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to lose his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's vast estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Political Pressure: Could parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.