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The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have not heard of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family resources to settle a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required subservience when he appeared in a space or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his duty in the conflict

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

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

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

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the royal household was plainly that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the concise statement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the accuser's version of events.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.