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It all began with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the sea and forced to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had publicly asserted to have not heard of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical money to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in public records: helicopter travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

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

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive monarch was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive property at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "These actions are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.