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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Lacking that image, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who stated she was moved across the sea and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have no heard of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of family money to avert a long-delayed court action.

Years of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required subservience when he walked into a room or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his connections.

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

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously indecisive king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the removal of designations and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially painful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's vast grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The message from the institution was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the complainant's version of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.