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It all began with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who stated she was moved across the sea and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling action by someone who had publicly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical money to avert a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were printed in public records: helicopter flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which demanded deference when he entered a room or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

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

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain king was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the account.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first monarch to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's large grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The message from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short communication showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.