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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate beamed suggestively in the rear.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent 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 claimed to have not been aware of her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's resources to resolve a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in public records: chopper transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

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

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

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary royal to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his service in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.