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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual smiled suggestively in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly invited them to estates.
• 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 royal annual reports: chopper travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he entered a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least strip him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the well-known uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the loss of designations and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

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

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

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

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.